Completely Contrasting Trajectories....

One is climbing to the top, while the other one has been falling for a while...

I'm sure that you can figure out which description belongs to whom! Comesana started his breakthrough in 2023 with some good Grand Slam results at Wimbledon and the US Open, but was not really able to follow it up consistently in 2025, and now in 2026 it has been even worse. He's getting eliminated in first rounds over and over, and even when he drops down to CH-level, he doesn't go that deep. Maybe he can still pull out a bit of magic in Grand Slams; we saw his best performances this year at Roland Garros, making it to the third round in a big fight against Berrettini. There was a bit of recent hope after his win against Yibing Wu in Winston-Salem, but perhaps that was more due to Wu being erratic, even if Comesana seemed pretty good. However, a straight-set loss to Altmaier in the next round (also taking a 6-1 first set), dented the hopes quite rapidly.

As for Cobolli, he does not need a lot of introduction, does he? The marathon man, who had to play deciding sets four times in a row before putting up a respectable (fatigued) 6-3, 6-4 scoreline against Fils-on-fire. We know what he is like... one of the most athletically explosive players (similar to Fokina/Alcaraz), which makes them very hard to beat unless you are a top player yourself. It is not random that he plays a lot of long matches and deciding sets; it's part of his playstyle... he plays without fear, which also means that we see some crazy misses sometimes. It's usually worth it, though, because we also get to see a lot of devastating forehands. The Italian is already warmed up in the US Open, coming from a mixed doubles final (with Bencic) and also having played an exhibition match with Tien on Arthur Ashe. Based on the words in his interviews, he seems to be in quite a happy place at the moment, and why wouldn't he? My biggest concern for him is the amount of tennis he has played and how busy he has been, combined with the fact that he might not be entirely switched on if he gets put on a smaller court. Against Comesana, he will likely need to take some initiative, which can also lead to erratic periods, combined with his streakiness on serve...