Cobolli’s Stunning Tweener Lob Lights Up US Open Comeback as Eala and Fritz Surge

NEW YORK: Flavio Cobolli’s second-round victory at the 2026 US Open will probably be remembered through one shot. Alexandra Eala’s will be remembered through the noise that followed her around Louis Armstrong Stadium. Taylor Fritz hardly allowed his opponent enough time to create a memory at all.

Three players reached the third round in very different ways on Thursday as the tournament began moving beyond its opening-week chaos.

Cobolli recovered from another lost opening set to beat Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 on Grandstand, producing an extraordinary front-facing tweener lob during the third set that immediately became one of the shots of the tournament.

Eala continued her remarkable 2026 rise by beating Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-1, 6-4, avenging an earlier defeat to the Ukrainian while a heavily Filipino crowd turned Louis Armstrong Stadium into something approaching a home court.

Fritz delivered the most clinical performance of the three. The American No. 9 seed overwhelmed Mattia Bellucci 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 in just 98 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium, preserving both his unbeaten-set record at this US Open and considerably more physical energy for what lies ahead.

For readers following the tournament round by round, The Sports Encounter’s Tennis Hub brings together our Grand Slam reports, player features, results and analysis throughout New York.

Schoolkate Makes Cobolli Work Again

For the second match in succession, Cobolli discovered that being the No. 5 seed offered no protection against a difficult beginning.

His tournament had almost disappeared in the first round, when Francisco Comesana won the opening two sets before the Italian recovered to win 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 after four hours and 12 minutes.

The official US Open account of Cobolli’s first-round escape showed how close one of the highest seeds in his section came to disappearing before the tournament had properly begun.

Schoolkate immediately reopened the problem.

The Australian qualifier served confidently, took time away from Cobolli and showed little interest in behaving like a player who was simply pleased to be sharing the Grandstand with the world No. 6.

He took the first set 6-3.

Cobolli did not need another four-hour rescue operation. His response was more controlled this time.

He began finding stronger positions behind his serve, returned with greater depth and gradually pushed Schoolkate away from the attacking court positions that had made the Australian dangerous early.

The second set went to Cobolli 6-3.

That recovery fitted what we saw during the Italian’s North American hard-court preparation. At Cincinnati, Cobolli repeatedly found himself having to solve matches after falling behind, including his comeback against Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals. The Sports Encounter examined that pattern in our Cincinnati Open analysis of Cobolli’s first Masters 1000 semifinal run.

The Cobolli Tweener That Stopped Grandstand

Then came the point.

During the third set, Schoolkate scrambled forward and appeared to have left Cobolli without a conventional attacking option. The Italian was facing the net rather than chasing a lob with his back turned, which made what followed even more unusual.

Cobolli reacted instinctively.

He struck the ball between his legs and lifted a beautifully weighted lob over Schoolkate.

The Australian could only turn and watch it fall inside the court.

Grandstand erupted.

Cobolli responded with a huge fist pump, feeding directly off the crowd as the match acquired a completely different emotional temperature.

The shot deserves the attention it received because it combined improvisation with genuine competitive value. This was not an exhibition point played at 5-0 with the result already decided. Cobolli produced it during a live third set of a Grand Slam match that had already caused him problems.

Technically, it was also far removed from the most familiar version of a tweener, where a player runs toward the baseline with his back to the net and strikes the ball between his legs.

Cobolli was moving forward.

He had little preparation time, had to judge Schoolkate’s location almost instantly and still needed enough control to send the ball over the Australian without pushing it beyond the baseline.

That is why the point felt different.

It was spectacular, but it also made tennis sense.

The Tweener Did Not Win the Match

The highlight should not distort what happened afterward.

Cobolli’s tweener did not seal the victory.

Schoolkate continued competing after the crowd reaction, and the Australian stayed with Cobolli deep into the fourth set. At 5-5, the match was still sufficiently close for another set to remain possible.

Cobolli eventually found the late break he needed, moved ahead 6-5 and served for a place in the third round.

He finished the contest with an ace.

The distinction matters.

The tweener supplied the image that will circulate around the tournament. The late break, controlled serving and ability to avoid a fifth set supplied the result.

That second part may ultimately be more important for Cobolli’s title prospects.

Why Avoiding Another Five-Setter Matters

Grand Slam tennis places a cumulative cost on players. The damage from a long match is not always visible during that match. It can appear two days later, or two rounds later, when the legs no longer respond with the same speed.

Cobolli had already spent four hours and 12 minutes beating Comesana.

Recovering from one long match is manageable. Building an entire first week around repeated five-set recoveries is far more dangerous.

That is part of the reason Thursday’s victory should be viewed as progress rather than another escape.

He lost the opening set again, but he shortened the recovery.

Cobolli’s rise to a career-high world No. 6 means expectations have changed considerably since the start of the season. Our complete US Open 2026 preview included him among the dangerous players below the most established championship favorites because his results now justify that position.

Alexander Blockx Is Next for Cobolli

The third round will provide a familiar opponent.

Alexander Blockx defeated Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 to earn the meeting with Cobolli.

The pair have already played during the North American hard-court swing. Cobolli beat Blockx 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in Cincinnati, which should remove any temptation to regard the next round as straightforward.

Blockx has already shown enough power and confidence in New York to make another difficult contest plausible.

For Cobolli, the objective will be obvious: stop making recovery part of the match plan.

The Italian has already proved twice that he can respond when he falls behind. The next step is establishing control earlier.

Alexandra Eala Turns Louis Armstrong Into a Filipino Home Court

If Cobolli created Thursday’s most inventive highlight, Alexandra Eala may have generated its most distinctive atmosphere.

The 21-year-old Filipino defeated Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-1, 6-4 to reach the third round, extending a season in which her relationship with crowds has become almost as remarkable as her results.

Philippine flags were scattered around Louis Armstrong Stadium. Supporters carried messages in Tagalog. Every important Eala point seemed to produce another rise in noise.

The US Open documented the extraordinary Filipino support around Eala, including fans traveling to Flushing Meadows specifically to follow a player who has become one of her country’s most visible international sports figures.

The atmosphere could easily have become a distraction.

Eala used it as fuel.

Eala Dominates the Opening Set

She won the opening four games and established the match on her terms almost immediately.

Eala struck 11 winners in the first set while Oliynykova failed to produce one, a disparity that reflected how effectively the Filipino controlled the baseline exchanges.

The 6-1 scoreline was not simply the result of an opponent playing poorly. Eala repeatedly took the initiative before Oliynykova could settle into longer patterns.

The second set was much more competitive.

Both players created opportunities, but Eala broke in the seventh game and did not allow the match to drift back toward the Ukrainian.

She eventually completed the 6-1, 6-4 victory in a little more than an hour.

Revenge for Strasbourg Adds Another Layer

The opponent also mattered.

Oliynykova had beaten Eala earlier this season in Strasbourg. Thursday therefore gave the Filipino an immediate measure of how much her game has developed since the European clay swing.

This time, Eala found a much cleaner tactical formula.

Her patience improved, her concentration held through the more difficult passages of the second set and she was able to prevent one lost service game or one extended rally from changing the direction of the match.

That maturity has been building throughout 2026.

Eala’s breakthrough accelerated when she defeated Jessica Pegula to win her first WTA title in Washington. The Sports Encounter examined the wider meaning of that achievement in our report on Eala’s historic Mubadala DC Open championship.

Before that came Wimbledon, where she stunned Iga Swiatek during one of the biggest victories of her career. Our Wimbledon Day 6 analysis tracked the result that pushed Eala from promising young player into a much wider global conversation.

Eala Is Beginning to Carry More Than Her Own Ambition

There is a different type of pressure surrounding Eala now.

Her victories are being experienced collectively by a Filipino audience that has rarely had a player this deep inside elite global tennis.

That creates opportunity, but it also creates expectation.

The most encouraging part of Thursday was how comfortable Eala looked inside that attention.

She did not appear overwhelmed by the flags, noise or recognition.

Instead, the crowd seemed to reinforce her concentration.

That relationship will become more significant the deeper she advances because third-round opponents will arrive expecting the environment rather than being surprised by it.

Eala now awaits the winner of Iva Jovic and Francesca Jones.

Whatever the matchup, she is no longer entering these matches as a curiosity.

She is the No. 17 seed, a WTA champion and a player whose 2026 results have repeatedly demonstrated that she belongs in major-tournament conversations.

Taylor Fritz Takes the Opposite Route: No Drama Required

Fritz spent considerably less time solving problems.

His second-round match against Bellucci lasted 98 minutes.

The score was 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.

Those numbers leave very little room for interpretive gymnastics.

Fritz dominated.

The American controlled the baseline from the opening games on Arthur Ashe Stadium, prevented Bellucci from establishing attacking patterns and won the first set without dropping a game.

His official US Open second-round report described a performance in which virtually every important part of Fritz’s game was operating effectively.

Bellucci finally got onto the scoreboard during the second set.

It changed almost nothing.

Fritz continued dictating play, moved through the second 6-1 and repeated the score in the third.

Fritz Has Yet to Drop a Set

The wider significance is beginning to emerge.

Fritz beat American teenager Darwin Blanch 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the opening round.

Add the Bellucci result and his tournament record now reads six sets played, six sets won.

He has also conceded only 11 games across those six sets.

That is valuable for any contender during the first week of a Grand Slam because efficiency now can become stamina later.

Fritz himself has repeatedly emphasized the importance of avoiding unnecessarily long early-round matches when the men’s tournament demands best-of-five-set tennis all the way to the championship.

He knows the physical equation better than most.

Fritz reached the US Open final in 2024. His 2026 hard-court season has also included the Washington title, where he defeated Rafael Jodar in the final. The Sports Encounter analyzed that run in our report on Fritz’s Mubadala DC Open championship.

Can Fritz End America’s Grand Slam Wait?

The question around Fritz becomes larger with every efficient victory.

No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick captured the 2003 US Open.

Fritz came closer than most when he reached the final here in 2024.

He now returns to the tournament as a player with that experience, an ATP 500 hard-court title from Washington and two straightforward victories already behind him.

The Sports Encounter’s pre-tournament analysis of the men’s US Open title race identified Fritz as one of several players capable of exploiting uncertainty around the leading favorites.

Some of that uncertainty has already turned into elimination.

Novak Djokovic is gone. Lorenzo Musetti is gone. Felix Auger-Aliassime is gone. Other sections of the draw remain volatile.

Fritz, meanwhile, has barely been delayed.

Francisco Cerundolo Will Provide Fritz’s First Major Test

The difficulty rises in the third round.

Fritz will face No. 24 seed Francisco Cerundolo, who recovered from a demanding match against Jan-Lennard Struff to advance in five sets.

That creates an immediate contrast.

Cerundolo enters the matchup after spending considerably more physical and emotional energy earning his place.

Fritz enters after losing only two games to Bellucci.

That does not decide a tennis match in advance, but it matters in a tournament where recovery becomes part of competitive strategy.

Fritz’s route also deserves attention within the wider structure of a draw that looked dangerous even before play began. Our analysis of the completed US Open draw examined how injuries, returning stars and emerging contenders created unusually unstable sections on both sides.

Cobolli, Eala and Fritz Show Three Ways to Build a Grand Slam Run

Thursday offered three useful versions of what early-round Grand Slam progress can look like.

Cobolli had to adapt.

He lost the opening set, corrected the match, created its most spectacular shot and avoided allowing another difficult start to become a five-set physical tax.

Eala had to manage something different.

She walked into a stadium filled with emotional expectation, imposed herself quickly and showed that her growing popularity does not have to weaken her competitive concentration.

Fritz had the cleanest assignment because he made it clean.

He gave Bellucci almost nothing, reached the third round in 98 minutes and preserved energy while several potential rivals were surviving much longer matches or disappearing from the draw altogether.

Each route carries a different lesson into the next round.

Cobolli needs faster starts.

Eala needs to keep separating the scale of the occasion from the simplicity of the point in front of her.

Fritz needs to prove his dominant early form survives when the opponent can withstand his first wave of pressure.

The larger US Open picture remains unsettled. Carlos Alcaraz has successfully returned to Grand Slam singles after his injury absence, a storyline The Sports Encounter explored in our report on Alcaraz’s New York comeback and opening-round victory.

For Cobolli, Eala and Fritz, though, Thursday moved the conversation forward.

One produced the shot people will replay.

Another produced the crowd reaction people could hear throughout Louis Armstrong.

The third barely gave Arthur Ashe enough time to become nervous.

All three are into the third round.

How they got there may tell us something about what happens next.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won Flavio Cobolli vs Tristan Schoolkate at the 2026 US Open?

Flavio Cobolli defeated Tristan Schoolkate 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.

What was Flavio Cobolli’s tweener against Schoolkate?

Cobolli struck a between-the-legs lob while facing the net during the third set. The improvised shot sailed over Schoolkate and landed for a winner, triggering a huge reaction from the Grandstand crowd.

Did Cobolli’s tweener win the match?

No. The tweener came during the third set. Cobolli eventually won the fourth set 7-5 and finished the match with an ace.

Who will Flavio Cobolli play next at the US Open?

Cobolli will face Alexander Blockx in the third round. Cobolli defeated Blockx in three sets when they met in Cincinnati earlier in the North American hard-court season.

What was the Alexandra Eala vs Oleksandra Oliynykova score?

Alexandra Eala defeated Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-1, 6-4 to reach the third round of the 2026 US Open.

Why was Eala’s win over Oliynykova significant?

Oliynykova had defeated Eala in Strasbourg earlier in 2026. Eala reversed that result in New York while playing in front of strong Filipino support at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Who does Alexandra Eala play next?

At the time of publication, Eala was waiting for the winner of Iva Jovic vs Francesca Jones.

What was the Taylor Fritz vs Mattia Bellucci score?

Taylor Fritz defeated Mattia Bellucci 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 in 98 minutes.

Has Taylor Fritz dropped a set at the 2026 US Open?

No. Fritz won his first two matches in straight sets, beating Darwin Blanch 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 before defeating Bellucci 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.

Who will Taylor Fritz play in the third round?

Fritz will face No. 24 seed Francisco Cerundolo in the third round.

When does the US Open third round begin?

The men’s and women’s singles third round begins on September 4 and continues through September 5 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.