Bar the odd match or two, round one of the US Open has safely been completed after day three of the Championships.

Fifth seed and French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli overcame a slow start to beat Francisco Comesana in five sets, in-form Iga Swiatek saw off Xiyu Wang for the loss of just five games, and Wimbledon semi-finalist Arthur Fery was well beaten by 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti.

The biggest casualty of the women’s draw so far came in 12th seed Belinda Bencic, who threw away a third-set lead to lose to Yulia Putintseva 3-6 7-5 6-3, while US Open contender Coco Gauff overcame the dangerous Zeynep Sonmez.

Roland Garros winner Alexander Zverev came from two sets to one down to beat the tricky Lorenzo Sonego in a match that finished just before 2am.

Alex Eala dismissed Mary Stoiana 6-1 6-2 in front of a raucous Louis Armstrong Stadium and Gael Monfils, who turned 40 on Tuesday, beat Adolfo Vallejo in four exciting sets. Now, Tennis365 has put together a roundup of some of the biggest stories over the past 24 hours.

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1) Carlos Alcaraz US Open balls concern?

While the Spaniard wasn’t in action on Tuesday, after safely overcoming Roman Safiullin in round one, the seven-time major winner is always a topic of conversation.

Indeed, as he comes back from a wrist injury that has sidelined him for more than four months, the matter of tennis balls has come to the fore.

Now, Tim Henman has pointed out that the men and women’s players use different balls at the US Open, which may be a disadvantage to Carlos Alcaraz.

The former world No 4 said, “At Wimbledon they use the same ball. At the Australian Open, and all other tournaments they use the same ball.

“I think it’s somewhat unique to this event, but when they did use the same ball, I think it was a request from the WTA because the women used the extra duty felt and they didn’t like it so much so they went back to the normal ball.”

Fellow former British tennis player Naomi Broady also worried it could be to the detriment of Alcaraz. For the full story, click here.

2) Coco Gauff’s serving confidence

For much of her young career, the 22-year-old’s serve has come under fire. Indeed, in the past year, no other WTA player has served up more double faults than her (302). Indeed, Alycia Parks and Jelena Ostapenko are a distant second and third on 222.

But against Sonmez, it wasn’t really an issue. A year on from hiring biomechanics coach Gavin MacMillan and crying over her underwhelming first and second delivery, the American is in a much happier place.

“Last year I knew all eyes were going to be on the serve,” Gauff reflected. “Gavin is so great at what he does, so I felt a lot of pressure — even pressure I put on myself to prove he’s great at what he does.

“It didn’t really show within the first two weeks, which is normal. But psychologically, I’m now serving and it’s ‘Oh, I’m going for the ace,’ or ‘I know I can hit the serve, and the return is probably not going to come back,’ versus last year I literally was like ‘I hope I make it in’.

“It feels good to come into a tournament feeling confident on that shot finally.” For more on that, click here.

3) Elena Rybakina’s injury worry?

The Australian Open champion had a rough warmup to this year’s US Open after suffering a flare up of her Achilles tendon issue at the Cincinnati Open.

However, the 27-year-old had more than enough to see off American wildcard Thea Frodin in a 6-3 6-2 victory.

Despite that, 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick is concerned that she is still “hurt” after seeing some troubling signs with her movement.

Roddick also thought that if the No 1 ranking wasn’t on the line this fortnight at Flushing Meadows, Rybakina may have chosen to sit this one out.

He said on the latest episode of Served, “Rybakina, it was strange. She hit the ball amazingly well, was kind of not moving for balls. I think she’s hurt.

“I don’t think she’s completely healthy, though. It seemed like there was a conscious choice not to like make quick bursts. The only chance she had and she executed it perfectly was ball striking. Middle of the court, try to hit a winner.”

For more on that, see the full story here.

4) Alexander Zverev’s late-night finish

Since reaching the final of Wimbledon, Zverev has suffered early defeats in Canada and Cincinnati.

So when Sonego was one set from victory, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the French Open champion.

However, he rallied and came back to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in a contest that ran for four hours and 53 minutes and finished at 1.55am on Wednesday.

But rather than bemoan the late ending and the long match, the 29-year-old appeared to relish the battle.

He said, “Actually, I’m happy that I won this kind of battle. This is exactly the match that I needed because I struggled in the last two tournaments, I didn’t play well, and sometimes good things happen after you fight through one of these matches. So I’m hoping that will be the case for me this tournament.”

For more from Zverev, see this article here.

5) Alex Eala lays down marker

Eala may be under the microscope more than any other player at this year’s US Open.

But she brushed away any nerves in her victory over American Stoiana, who despite being in her native country, felt like the outsider.

Although she is achieving her dreams right now, the 21-year-old is still trying to stay grounded.

She said, “I’m still so young, so I have so much to learn when it comes to managing… there’s so much I feel I’m going to experience and so many challenges I’ve yet to encounter.

“But right now, I think with the success I’ve been having this past year and my improvement coming quite rapidly. It feels like just yesterday that I was dreaming to be on Armstrong, for example, or dreaming to play against the players that I’ve been playing against.”

For more on that, visit here.

6) Gael Monfils keeps on shining

And last but not least, the soon-to-be retired Monfils. The entertaining Frenchman is enjoying his farewell tour this year before hanging up his racket but he still showed there is some fuel left in the tank in his first round win.

The former French Open semi-finalist never misses an opportunity to give the fans something to cheer about and that was on full display against Vallejo.

When he was up a break in the fourth set, Monfils almost inexplicably did a jumping forehand, making his chances of winning the point a whole lot harder.

But this is why the veteran is so beloved. Not only did he pull it off in style, but he bowed to his adoring public.

OH NO, HE DIDN’T! 🤯

The good old ELEVATION SENSATION 🚀 pic.twitter.com/nGFfXqyr3u

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 2, 2026

After the match, he received a happy birthday rendition from the crowd to celebrate his 40th birthday, with his wife Elina Svitolina courtside, too.

When asked why he hit that forehand, Monfils replied, “Two sets to one, a break up, happy… why not? I won’t hit many more to be honest. Why not? Yes, it’s harder. Somehow, it produces more happiness, more joy for me.”

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