The buzz — a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium — was palpable for the first match Tuesday, with play delayed on the outside courts due to rain and roars echoing throughout as Flavio Cobolli started to stage his comeback from down two sets. 

He entered the U.S. Open seeded No. 5, cracking into the top 10 for the first time after a run to the French Open final earlier this year. He nearly tumbled out of the tournament in the first round, though, before stunningly erasing his deficit against unseeded Francisco Comesana to win 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. 

In the aftermath of his win, Cobolli was asked about being someone that “people want to pay to see,” and he joked that “people pay for everything now.” 

But the rest of his answer, after one of his biggest wins and the first two-set comeback of his career, illustrated the challenge — and adjustment — for one of the sport’s fast-rising stars. 

“I feel the pressure, but is something that I will want to use as a friend, you know,” Cobolli said. 

“I always love to play where the pressure is high. … So something that I’m not usual to do, but I’m trying to be more comfortable when I do. So now I feel good when I’m on court like this, when the court is full, when the crowd is for my opponent. 

“So I’m trying to be more calm as possible. I don’t know if you guys, you can see that I’m very calm, but I’m trying to do something different from the past.” 

Cobolli has quickly become one of the faces of the men’s singles draw, especially in a field missing Jannik Sinner and without Novak Djokovic after he was eliminated. Before the first round, Cobolli and Belinda Bencic advanced to the final of the mixed doubles tournament before falling, and they were the duo who knocked out the star-studded pairing of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz. Cobolli was a featured name in the Stars of the Open exhibitions last week, too. 

He’s still just 24 years old, still looking for his first Grand Slam title. He’s still adjusting to life as one of the stars. So it was fitting, in a way, that he ultimately delivered perhaps the signature comeback of the tournament so far. 

“It was really tough to start the match,” Cobolli said, “especially because we played on Armstrong that is very big and very loud, like everybody saw. But I’m still happy with the performance” 

Elena Rybakina, who can take over as No. 1 in the women’s singles rankings with a run to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, opened up about the injury she sustained at the Cincinnati Open after defeating Thea Frodin in straight sets Tuesday — and revealed that she didn’t know if she’d even be able to play in Queens. 

“[The physio in Cincinnati] said the Achilles tendon was not broken, so that was kind of a good thing, but of course I still had the pain,” Rybakina said. “I’m pretty happy, of course, that I’m playing right now, and we were taking day by day. I was not playing for the full week, so seven days, no tennis, and basically not too much gym I could do movement-wise.”