3 months ago
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The future of Australian tennis looks eerily similar to its past.
On a balmy Wednesday night at Ken Rosewall Arena, in front of a smattering of fans, Lleyton Hewitt and son Cruz played doubles together. Despite one being at the start of their career and the other well past the end of his, neither looked out of place.
Lleyton and Cruz Hewitt make a successful doubles debut.Credit: James Brickwood
It is a small sample size to go on – the match lasted just 46 minutes and 17 seconds – but we witnessed a special combination. On a court on which Lleyton has been singles champion four times, Team Hewitt won in their first doubles collaboration at the NSW Open, beating Hayden Jones and Pavle Markinov 6-1, 6-0.
Hewitt jnr is just 16 years old. By that age, the old man had already announced himself to the tennis world with a win over the great Andre Agassi. It’s unfair to compare, but let’s do it anyway.
The first thing you notice when they step on the court is their size. At 185 centimetres, Cruz is already eight centimetres taller than his dad. And there’s no paternity test required to realise they’re related. Darren Cahill once nicknamed Lleyton “Rusty”, a National Lampoon’s reference that could just as easily fit his son.
But the real similarities are in the playing style. It was evident in Cruz’s singles win on Tuesday against Omar Jasika, in which he saved three match points. Then there was the singles match he played just hours before stepping onto the doubles court – which he lost after holding a match point to Bernard Tomic’s conqueror, Japan’s Hayato Matsuoka.
Cruz has never seen a ball he can’t run down, a close call that isn’t worth debating or an opponent he can’t grind into the astroturf.
Sound familiar?
Throw in a couple of “C’mon’s” and a few other feisty moments during his singles matches, and it’s evident there’s also a big ticker there as well.
Whether it was winning his opening service game or serving out the match, Cruz produced an effort his father described as “best on court.”
Team Hewitt got off to a winning start.Credit: James Brickwood
After the Hewitts came off court together, Cruz was asked how he was similar – and different – to his famous father.
“Similar personalities on the court, good fighting spirit and all that,” Cruz said before adding a remark that left them both chuckling. “But definitely I play a bit more big and he likes to stay in the point more.”
Hewitt snr has been world No.1, won two grand slams and been in some of the most epic of Davis Cup battles. However, this hit-out in front of a couple of hundred fans is up there with all of that.
“It was a lot of fun,” Lleyton said. “Obviously a little bit unknown coming out here today, and it’s nice coming back on this court. I’ve had a lot of special memories and this is right up there.
“It’s something that I don’t think many fathers get the chance to do so to be able to come out and him obviously being good enough at this level now is pretty impressive at his age.
“Even though I’m getting up there, we sort of matched at the right time, so it was nice.”
Cruz didn’t blink serving out the match, winning the game to love.
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“I let him serve first, too,” Lleyton said. “So he was happy about that.”
The game has changed immensely since Hewitt snr dominated it. The players are faster, stronger and hit the ball harder. But in a Challenger event in Sydney, we may have seen another member of the family take some significant steps towards putting his family back into the spotlight that is centre court.
“The biggest thing for him at the moment is just improvement,” Lleyton said.
“Keep improving, keep becoming a better player, a better version of himself every time he steps on the court. The last couple of months I’ve been so proud of him and the effort that he’s put in, and the results have been there because of that effort, which is great.”
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