Seeded players continue to face each other as U.S. Open third-round action resumes on Saturday in New York. Taylor Fritz is going up against Francisco Cerundolo, while familiar foes Flavio Cobolli and Alexander Blockx meet one more time.
(9) Taylor Fritz vs. (24) Francisco Cerundolo
Fritz is already a U.S. Open finalist; he was the runner-up to Jannik Sinner in 2024. The 10th-ranked American has great chance to once again make it that far, with an ideal draw in the top half of the bracket and with No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev looking shaky at best. Whereas Zverev has spent more than nine hours on court through two rounds, Fritz absolutely destroyed both Darwin Blanch and Mattia Bellucci.
The 28-year-old won’t be looking ahead, however. For now he will only focus on Cerundolo, whom he faces in the third round on Saturday. This marks their third encounter and it will be the rubber match after they split the first two. Cerundolo won a tight four-setter at the 2023 French Open before Fritz prevailed in another clay-court contest that went the distance at the 2024 Madrid Masters. This time around they collide on Fritz’s home turf — in terms of both surface and location. Cerundolo is not entirely hopeless on hard courts, but — at least outside of Miami — it is by far his least favorite surface. And the North American summer is generally his least productive time of year. The 25th-ranked Argentine did well to get past Filip Misolic and Jan-Lennard Struff earlier this week, but Misolic had not played a match since February and the Struff showdown was a five-setter. A more confident and more rested Fritz should win this one with ease.
Pick: Fritz in 3
(28) Alexander Blockx vs. (5) Flavio Cobolli
Cobolli and Blockx will be squaring off for the third time in their careers and for the third time this season. They split their two previous meetings; Blockx got the job done 6-3, 6-3 in Monte-Carlo before Cobolli battled to a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 victory last month in Cincinnati. Winning close matches is nothing new for Cobolli, who needed five sets against Francisco Comesana in round one and was pushed by Tristan Schoolkate in four tight sets on Thursday.
Blockx has advanced with routine wins at the expense of Marcelo Tomas Berrios Vera and Marco Trungelliti, both of whom do their best work on clay. This is the first time that the 21-year-old Belgian has ever done anything at a Grand Slam. He lost in qualifying of all for majors last season and had won just a single main-draw match (2026 French Open) prior to this fortnight. Cobolli, on the other hand, went all the way to the Roland Garros final this spring and is a back-to-back Wimbledon quarterfinalist. On the big stage and in a best-of-five scenario, it’s simply tough to bet against the sixth-ranked Italian in this situation.
Pick: Cobolli in 5
WWW?
Unless they can reschedule Fritz-Cerundolo, that’s going to be a red-eye special and ungood for Fritz’s campaign. Zverev is already a nightshift worker essentially at this US Open. Poor Circadian rhythms!
But yeah, Fritz should win this one. Not sure about Blockx or Cobolli, but maybe Cobolli will pull out the M&Ms again for a second wind.
“ Circadian rhythms “ ( REM fan??!)….Cobo in 4
Biologist!🌿 But REM are good too. Didn’t know they had a Circadian rhythms song.😎
They did reschedule Fritz-Cerundolo; I wonder why they didn’t shift it to the other main stadium which seemed to be free.