15 year old Cruz Hewitt was given a wildcard into qualies in his first ATP Challenger in Playford, Australia. In the first round he beat 27 year old Aussie Josh Sheehy, ranked 807, 64 63. Second round he was defeated by Great Britain’s 24 year old Emile Hudd, ranked 326, 76 75.
Hudd advanced to main draw and lost to top seed Rinky Hijikata, 23 years old and ranked 83. The score was 76 76. Hijikata is playing in the final of Playford.
So it appears young Hewitt is progressing and improving considerably and he’s already capable of playing ATP top 100 caliber tennis at age 15.
Like his dad Lleyton, the former world no. 1 and US Open and Wimbledon champion, Cruz is in position now to make a big breakout next year as 16 year old. Now ranked 1764, Cruz will turn 16 on December 11. Lleyton won his first ATP title at 16.
Cruz Hewitt also has been given a wildcard into the qualies of this week’s Sydney Challenger and will face Makoto Ochi in his first match. The lefthander Ochi is a 28 year old from Japan, currently ranked 615. If Hewitt beats Ochi, he will play the winner of Thomas Fancutt vs Seita Watanabe.
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Scoop Malinowski · October 27, 2024 at 1:30 pm
Hewitt won again today 1R at Syndey Challenger NSW on Rosewall stadium court vs Ochi ranked 641. Cruz won 62 06 76. Very impressive. First of all he’s got a Kyrgios Sinner talk lanky build, much different than Lleyton. He has smooth elegance and easy way of playing like his dad and he can rifle winners especially with forehand. Also he has fire, YEAH! CMON!!!. Wears cap forward. Incredible that at just 15 he’s winning these ATP matches and his scores are on the same level as top 100 players like Hijikata, who beat Hudd 76 76, Hudd beat Hewitt 75 76. Hijikata won the title today. I know a coach who actually coached against Hewitt earlier this year in a tournament in Florida, he said. “I wasn’t overly impressed with him. He’s solid, he has good stick on his groundstrokes. But I didn’t look at him and say, Damn this kid is a cant miss.” This coache’s kid was beatin Cruz “kicking his butt 63 31 with two break points, one a second serve by Cruz to his backhand that he never usually misses.” This kid has something special that doesn’t stand out even to the expert eye. It’s called heart of a lion and never say die spirit maybe.