Meantime, having lost the first two sets, Cobolli has broken Comesana for 3-1 in the third; is this the start of a comeback?

Thanks Katy and hi everyone. In classic Oor Maddy style, Keys has just been broken back by Korneeva, serving at 7-5 4-2; the second is set is right back in the balance.

With that, Daniel is here to take you through the next couple of hours. Over to you Daniel …

Keys, having zoomed into a 3-0 lead in the first set before being pulled back and then prevailing, has charged 4-1 ahead in the second, and will be hoping Korneeva can’t mount another comeback. Cobolli’s chances of a comeback, meanwhile, appear to be diminishing, as he slips 15-40 down on serve, already trailing 6-3, 6-2, 1-1, but Cobolli gamely takes the next three points before painting the lines with precision and escaping with the hold! If he goes on to win this, that could be the turning point.

Rybakina, this year’s Australian Open champion, begins her campaign knowing that taking the world No 1 ranking from Aryna Sabalenka is in her own hands. It would be the first time the 27-year-old’s reached the summit. Our man in New York, Tumaini Carayol, has been looking at the permutations:

Rybakina begins this tournament sitting at No 1 in the live standings and in control of her own destiny. Sabalenka must win the title to have any hope of retaining the top ranking, but Rybakina will become the new No 1 regardless of all other results if she reaches the semi-finals. Should either Coco Gauff or Jessica Pegula win the title and Rybakina fails to make the semi-finals, they would take top spot. This additional pressure could further add to Sabalenka’s woes, but perhaps, after 97 consecutive weeks as the undisputed best player in the world, this is exactly what she needs.

There’s still no play away from Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong, by the way. When the rain does eventually stop, we’ll have Elena Rybakina against the 17-year-old American Thea Frodin; Belinda Bencic, the 12th seed and former Olympic champion, against Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva; the 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo against Austria’s Filip Misolic; and Australia’s Dane Sweeny against the fiery Frenchman Corentin Moutet, who lost nearly all his prize money at Queen’s in June after he was fined for a very sweary on-court interview which was broadcast live on the BBC.

Comesana has two set points of his own at 6-3, 5-2, 40-15, and an ace down the T seals it! Cobolli looks to the skies, or more accurately the roof, as he ponders his predicament. The fifth seed has never won a match from two sets to love down, and has a tendency to let his spirits flag when things aren’t going his way, so he’s going to have to snap that habit if he’s to avoid an unexpected first-round exit after such a fine summer.

Comesana extends his supremacy from 6-3, 2-1 to 6-3, 5-2 and the chances of a subdued Cobolli going the same way as Djokovic and Fils are increasing. Over on Arthur Ashe, Keys has two set points at 15-40, the New York crowd getting right behind the home player, and she goes for broke with a forehand down the line … but her timing is a little late and she misses. No problem, Keys gets the job done nonetheless, as she snatches the first set 7-5.

Korneeva holds for 5-5. Keys holds for 6-5. This is far more cagey than Manchester City’s spending, which is about to approach approximately £678trillion in this transfer window, with news that they’ve agreed a £125m deal to sign Enzo Fernández from Chelsea. You can follow all the deadline day moves here:

Cobolli manages to do what he couldn’t at the start the first set, holding from 40-0 up in the opening game of the second, but at 1-1 the Italian serves up two double faults, and misses a forehand and a backhand by a mile. He just can’t find any consistency. And he now trails Comesana by a set and a break, 6-3, 2-1.

A see-sawing first set on Arthur Ashe, where Keys led Korneeva 3-0, was broken back, but is now a game away, serving at 5-3. But the 31-year-old just can’t shake her 19-year-old opponent off and she falls 0-40 down, before Korneeva strikes on the second break point! Korneeva will serve to stay in the set at 4-5.

The luckless Thanasi Kokkinakis, so often cut down by injury, has withdrawn from the singles before his match against Rafael Jodar and has been replaced in the draw by Bu Yunchaokete, the 24-year-old from China, who’ll get the chance to improve on his 0-6 first-round record at grand slams.

No, because Comesana lands a 131mph first serve, his fastest of the day, and it gives him two set points at 40-15. Another stinging serve and the world No 119 secures the first set 6-3 against an out-of-sorts world No 6! Could Cobolli suffer the same first-round fate as Novak Djokovic and Arthur Fils? The Italian rips off his shirt, revealing what looks like a GPS tracking vest, as he sits on his chair waiting for Comesana to return to the court, but I’m not sure he needs any data to tell him he needs to up his game in the second set.

With the rain still pelting down, meaning play on the non-covered courts won’t begin for at least another 30 minutes, Cobolli, having worked hard to get back into the first set, promptly drops serve and is now serving to stay in it at 5-2. He’s entering the danger zone at 0-30 but regroups impressively to hold for 5-3. But can he stop Comesana from serving out the set?

Questions were asked after Keys’s Australian Open triumph last year about whether it would free the American up to win more slams, or if she’d be content settling for the one. So far it appears to be the latter, with the 31-year-old reaching only one major quarter-final since, but she simply has too much firepower for Korneeva early on and breaks for 2-0, before ripping a winner for 40-30 and then wrapping up the game. Keys leads 3-0.

Cobolli’s forehand has finally turned up for the occasion and he wears down Comesana in a rare lengthy rally at 30-40 on the Argentinian’s serve to break back for 2-3. Cue an obligatory roar. Keys, meanwhile, the runner-up in 2017 and the 2025 Australian Open champion, opens with a hold against Alina Korneeva, the 19-year-old Russian who’s making her US Open main draw debut.

Nothing’s going Cobolli’s way at the moment, as he thwacks his own leg with his racket while trying to hit the ball, as he’s taken to deuce once more on his serve. He recovers to get to his advantage, but then balloons another errant forehand well long, before finally getting on the board to reduce his deficit to 3-1.

It was also a day when Stan Wawrinka played his final grand slam match, Carlos Alcaraz made his return from injury and Aryna Sabalenka, after a shaky summer, started her title defence with a comfortable victory.

Comesana backs up the break to love for a 3-0 lead, just before Keys steps on to Arthur Ashe, in an entrance significantly more understated than Naomi Osaka’s on the same court last night. After Osaka’s jellyfish outfit at the Australian Open, Eiffel Tower-inspired dress at the French Open and Japanese kimono at Wimbledon, she completed her own calendar slam yesterday with this look. She said it was inspired by the former NBA star Allen Iverson, whom she described as a “trailblazer for shifting the way basketball players dress”. Osaka’s tennis last night was slightly less eye catching than her outfit, but she came through in two tie-break sets against Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3).

With humidity levels of 90% plus, the conditions are brutal, even with the roof on, and Comesana is already dripping so much he looks as if he’s deep into a fifth set. “I never sweated at all,” declares the Federer-like Navratilova on the commentary, “it was just my DNA.” Cobolli, meanwhile, is made to sweat as he’s pulled back from 40-0 to deuce - the Italian’s main strength, his forehand, isn’t fully firing yet – and Comesana breaks for 2-0! Having been 0-40 down in the opening game. It’s been a strange start.

The first victory of the day goes to Comesana, who wins the toss and elects to serve first. It’s an inauspicious start, though, as he drops 0-30 down and then 0-40 when he slices a backhand into the net. Comesana, sporting a retro headband, saves the first break point with a charge forward before scrambling to deuce, but it’s a scrappy opening game, to be honest, and Cobolli soon has a fourth break point … it’s surely his for the taking as he does all the hard work … but he then blasts a forehand into the net! An improvised drop shot volley from Cobolli can’t stop Comesana from moving to game point, and the Argentinian escapes with the hold for 1-0.

Here come Cobolli and Comesana, with the Louis Armstrong roof keeping out the rain and ramping up the atmosphere. While it’s been a breakout summer for Cobolli, having reached the French Open final and Wimbledon last eight, Comesana’s had a rough 2026, winning only seven matches all year. Cobolli’s flashy, shotmaking game will likely be too much for the world No 119 from Buenos Aires today, but the Italian does have a point to prove at the US Open, having never been beyond the third round.

Away from Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong, it’s been confirmed that play won’t start until at least midday New York time/5pm BST.

And what of the day three energy levels on the Sky Sports team? Martina Navratilova and Tim Henman are in good spirits (Martina especially because she’s the only Sky pundit who can boast that all of her title picks are still standing), but Laura Robson is feeling rather sweaty in the humid, heavy conditions, with rain forecast today. And right on cue … it starts raining. Gah. Play may not be starting on time on most of the courts now, though the roofs on Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong mean that Madison Keys v Alina Korneeva is guaranteed to get under way in half an hour, and Flavio Cobolli will be on court very shortly against Argentina’s Francisco Comesana.