Rising tennis star Cruz Hewitt shows dad’s trademark fighting spirit
Fourteen-year-old Cruz Hewitt has cut an impressive figure while following in his tennis legend dad’s footsteps as he competed at Melbourne Park.
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Like father, like son.
It was hard not to see the striking similarities between the blond-haired rising star sweetly striking a tennis ball on Court 10 at Melbourne Park on Monday morning and his tennis legend dad.
Despite his tender age, Cruz Hewitt, 14, cut an impressive figure as he competed in the under 18s December Showdown National Championships.
Under the watchful eye of his dad — US Open winner and Davis Cup captain Lleyton — and his mum Bec, Hewitt, showed signs of his father’s trademark fighting spirit as he fought out a two hour and 23 minute two-set slogfest.
The son of a gun lost no admirers as he lost a close match 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (9-7) to 16-year-old Boyd Schreiber from NSW.
Quite literally following in the footsteps of his father, who also played the under 18 national championships as a 14-year-old in 1995, Cruz chased down winners all over the court, fist pumped and even shouted his dad’s famous “C’mon’’ catch try to fire himself up.
Hewitt Senior’s junior coach John McCurdy, as well as former Aussie pro Peter Luczak, is even working with the teenage tennis prodigy in a move Aussie tennis fans hopes help produce another green and gold Grand Slam hero.
McCurdy recently told Code Sports: “Cruz has got a lot of the qualities to be a great player.
“And it’s pretty brave of him to take on tennis after what Lleyton’s achieved.
“He’s got a real passion for it. He’s going to be a good player. It’s just a matter of how good, really, and he’s a pretty good player already.’’
Cruz — the 2021 12 and under Australian clay court champion, has won four ITF 18 and under titles this year and is already taller than his dad.
He will be back in action at the round robin under 18 championships on Tuesday.
Aus Open ticket sales surge
A surge in interstate and overseas visitors snapping up tickets to the Australia Open has spiked unprecedented interest more than a month from the start of Melbourne’s grand slam.
A “significant” increase in sale of seats to the tennis showpiece compared to the same time last year has organisers quietly confident a new crowd record could be set for the major event.
Australian Open director Craig Tiley revealed there had been “double digit” growth in ticket sales for the January event across all categories.
“Ticket sales are significantly up on where they were this time last year and we are really excited about that ... if that trend continues we expect to have a bumper summer,” he said.
A move to a Sunday start for the first time and return of overseas fans from the likes of China and Japan is driving demand.
Victorians, with the aid of the Open being played in their own backyard across three weekends for the first time, had also rushed to secure seats.
“We are seeing the biggest inbound tourism that we’ve ever seen – so good for the Victorian economy,” he said.
“We are seeing the biggest interstate interest we’ve ever seen and within Victoria, we are seeing more Victorians want to come than ever.
“So every single category is up, internationally probably a fair bit more than before because the restrictions we’ve had are now completely over.”
This year’s Open attracted 839,192 fans over the 14 days of the tournament proper.
Officially, the event drew a record 902,312 spectators courtside over a three-week period – far bigger than Wimbledon, the French or us Opens – but that figure included lead-up events.
The Herald Sun has been told ticket sales are at least a third up on what they were last year, raising the real prospect of 900,000 fans passing through the gates to Melbourne Park over the two week tournament for the first time.
Mr Tiley said: “Obviously we would like to beat the number we had last year but ... it’s so weather dependent and if we have rain for the first two days we won’t make it.”
Mr Tiley has previously declared a goal of luring one million fans to the tournament over three weeks, as off-court activities, food, music and even art exhibitions are staged as part of the event.
And with ticket sales “the furthest ahead that we have ever been in the history of the Australian Open” at this time of year, records are likely to fall this summer.
Melbourne Park is already a construction zone ahead of the January 14-28 drawcard, as workers prepare the precinct for fans, players and broadcast crews from around the world.
It includes construction of a two storey bar overlooking the action that will for the first time serve as a party court for the Open, in a break from tradition.
“If that works really well and you guys love it, we will probably send that around all the way around the courts in years to come,” Mr Tiley said.
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