{"id":8397,"date":"2026-07-31T05:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T05:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8397"},"modified":"2026-07-31T05:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T05:05:16","slug":"like-my-older-brother-alex-de-minaur-cruz-hewitt-share-special-match-at-dc-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8397","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like my older brother\u2019: Alex de Minaur, Cruz Hewitt share special match at DC Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 17-year-old son of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt got to face off against the event\u2019s defending champion, a mentor and a fellow Aussie.<\/strong><\/p>

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\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Australians Alex de Minaur and Cruz Hewitt meet at the net after their match Thursday. \u201cHe\u2019s always been a great kid,\u201d de Minaur said. (Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Alex de Minaur didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to be a dangerous player, for sure, and obviously I don\u2019t think he\u2019s too scared of the moment, which is something that\u2019s very important at a young age,\u201d de Minaur said Sunday, while Hewitt was playing the second of his two qualifier matches. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see him doing what he\u2019s doing. Obviously having Lleyton in his corner, the way he\u2019s handling the pressure, the expectation, the eyeballs that he would have being Lleyton\u2019s son. He\u2019s a good kid, and he\u2019s definitely doing the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewitt won that qualifier when his opponent retired from the match, which launched him into the main draw of a men\u2019s tournament for the first time in his young career. He then beat fellow qualifier Marcos Giron in the round of 32 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I play Alex, that would be a dream to share the court with him,\u201d Hewitt said Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s like my older brother. I\u2019ve known him basically nearly my whole life. He\u2019s stayed with us. We have Christmas together, also. To play him, share the court with him, [when] he\u2019s taught me so much, I think that would be a pretty cool memory for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably wasn\u2019t ready to play him this week,\u201d de Minaur said after the match, grinning. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect that. I knew at some stage we were going to play each other. I wasn\u2019t expecting it this week, but I\u2019m glad it happened. I\u2019m looking forward to the next ones.\u201d<\/p>

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As Hewitt walked out from the locker room, his father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve looked up to him my whole life, pretty much,\u201d Hewitt said. \u201cSeen him play so many times, practiced together. As I said, he\u2019s like my brother, so it was special to share the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Minaur quickly went up 5-0 in the first set, cruising while Hewitt tried to settle in. And when Hewitt did settle down \u2014 though de Minaur still won, 6-2, 6-3, in an efficient 60 minutes \u2014 he showed flashes of the powerful groundstrokes and intense serve that will propel him as he tries to build on his performance in Washington.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re playing against each other for another 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been a great kid,\u201d de Minaur said. \u201cHe\u2019s loved tennis, and I can\u2019t say this enough, the way he\u2019s handling the spotlight, the pressure, the expectations of being who he is. Even after a week like this one, right, there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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\u2019m sure he\u2019ll get to.\u201d<\/p>

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The 17-year-old son of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt got to face off against the event\u2019s defending champion, a mentor and a fellow Aussie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Like my older brother\u2019: Alex de Minaur, Cruz Hewitt share special match at DC Open - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8397\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Like my older brother\u2019: Alex de Minaur, Cruz Hewitt share special match at DC Open - 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