17 year old Cruz Hewitt has been on the ATP World Tour since he was a toddler. I saw him at Newport 2014 or 2015 practicing with his dad Lleyton next to us on the grass courts while we played a doubles set, Greg Sharko, Will Persson and the fourth I forget who it was. Cruz was about five years old and was whacking the ball around like any other kid that age.
Nothing special. However this week young Hewitt has emerged as an extraordinary force on the tour. After a couple of years of okay results in Challengers and ITFs, Hewitt has won two rounds in qualis as a wildcard – beating Dusan Lajovic and Zachary Svajda, who both retired from the matches. Now in the main draw, Hewitt defeated Marcos Giron 63 64, for his first main tour win.
Currently ranked 612, Hewitt will reach the top 400 range by beating Giron in a 500 and he’s not even finished this week. In the second round he will face the winner of deMinaur vs Tsitsipas. Hewitt is familiar with deMinaur’s game as the two have trained together numerous times.
Hewitt the younger is considerably taller than his 5-11 father, with a different body type more similar to Sinner’s longer arms and legs and flowing athleticism. There did appear to be a slight hitch in his forehand earlier but it has been smoothed out. Though he wears a white Nike ballcap forward, unlike his dad’s signature backwards cap, Kid Hewitt also has a fiery demeanor on court, though not yet as feisty and tenacious or combative as Lleyton was on the way up and during his prime. Giron wore his back backwards today.
Lleyton Hewitt burst on the scene as a 16 year old wildcard in Adelaide almost three decades ago (1998), where he beat Spadea, Stoltenberg and Agassi to win the title as a complete unknown.
Cruz Hewitt is showing all the right movies for achieving a similar type of enormous breakout as a teenager just like his father.
The only other ATP no. 1 player to have a son win an ATP match was Bjorn Borg’s son Leo.
Notes: Hewitt wears Nike attire and shoes and plays with a Yonex racquet, same as his father did.
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