The 17-year-old son of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt got to face off against the event’s defending champion, a mentor and a fellow Aussie.
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Alex de Minaur didn’t think this was going to happen yet. Not this week. He thought he had a little more time to get used to the idea before it was standing across the net from him on Thursday afternoon.
But then Cruz Hewitt, the 17-year-old son of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, earned a spot in the main draw for this week’s DC Open. De Minaur and Hewitt, both Australians, have known each other for what de Minaur estimates is a decade. They hit together regularly and de Minaur, 27, who looked up to the elder Hewitt when he was rising through the ranks, has in turn become something of a mentor to the teenager.
“He’s going to be a dangerous player, for sure, and obviously I don’t think he’s too scared of the moment, which is something that’s very important at a young age,” de Minaur said Sunday, while Hewitt was playing the second of his two qualifier matches. “It’s great to see him doing what he’s doing. Obviously having Lleyton in his corner, the way he’s handling the pressure, the expectation, the eyeballs that he would have being Lleyton’s son. He’s a good kid, and he’s definitely doing the right things.”
Hewitt won that qualifier when his opponent retired from the match, which launched him into the main draw of a men’s tournament for the first time in his young career. He then beat fellow qualifier Marcos Giron in the round of 32 — a win that meant, if de Minaur took care of business in his own first-round match, the two would meet for the first time.
“If I play Alex, that would be a dream to share the court with him,” Hewitt said Tuesday. “He’s like my older brother. I’ve known him basically nearly my whole life. He’s stayed with us. We have Christmas together, also. To play him, share the court with him, [when] he’s taught me so much, I think that would be a pretty cool memory for us.”
De Minaur, who won the DC Open last year and is the No. 1 seed this year, took care of business against Stefanos Tsitsipas to set up the dream-making match. The two stepped onto the stadium court at the Rock Creek Park tennis center Thursday afternoon, and neither could quite believe it was really happening.
“I probably wasn’t ready to play him this week,” de Minaur said after the match, grinning. “I didn’t expect that. I knew at some stage we were going to play each other. I wasn’t expecting it this week, but I’m glad it happened. I’m looking forward to the next ones.”
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As Hewitt walked out from the locker room, his father’s victory at the DC Open in 2004 was marked on the edge of the stands over his right shoulder. His near-lifelong friend was waiting to be his opponent. It was all, he said later, a very special moment.
“I’ve looked up to him my whole life, pretty much,” Hewitt said. “Seen him play so many times, practiced together. As I said, he’s like my brother, so it was special to share the court.”
De Minaur quickly went up 5-0 in the first set, cruising while Hewitt tried to settle in. And when Hewitt did settle down — though de Minaur still won, 6-2, 6-3, in an efficient 60 minutes — he showed flashes of the powerful groundstrokes and intense serve that will propel him as he tries to build on his performance in Washington.
The two shared a warm embrace and a long moment at the net after the match ended. De Minaur congratulated Hewitt and told him he hopes they’re playing against each other for another 10 years.
“He’s always been a great kid,” de Minaur said. “He’s loved tennis, and I can’t say this enough, the way he’s handling the spotlight, the pressure, the expectations of being who he is. Even after a week like this one, right, there’s going to be even more pressure and expectation, but I think the whole kind of world should let him develop at his own pace, right? It takes time.
“He can definitely produce this extremely high level of tennis. I think the next part for him is to try to do it consistently week after week, which I’m sure he’ll get to.”
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