Cruz Hewitt, Bernard Tomic, Simona Halep given Australian Open qualifying wildcards

Two big tennis names at different stages of their careers will get the chance to fight for an Australian Open berth.

Cruz Hewitt will attempt to follow in his father Lleyton’s famous footsteps and make his Australian Open debut as a teenager after being handed a wildcard into qualifying along with comeback kid Bernard Tomic.

The pair of Aussies, at different ends of their professional careers, have been handed the opportunity at Melbourne Park along with former world No.1 Simona Halep as she plots a path back to the top from a lengthy ban for a positive drugs test.

Lleyton Hewitt he qualified for the first of his 20 straight main draw appearances at Melbourne Park in 1997 as a 15-year-old, a feat Cruz won’t be able to beat.

But the 16-year-old is among 10 other Australian men in qualifying, which includes former world No.17 Tomic, Jason Kubler and Alex Bolt.

Tomic, who has surged back towards the top 200 in the rankings, has reached the fourth round three times at Melbourne Park and last contested Australian Open qualifying two years ago when he fell at the first hurdle.

27 years after his father qualified for his first Australian Open with a qualifying wildcard, Cruz Hewitt will now bid to do the same at #AO2025 💚💛https://t.co/noI3NG6bV2

— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) December 18, 2024

Halep, who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, received a four-year suspension after testing positive for the banned drug roxadustat at the 2022 US Open.

But having protested her innocence, the ban was reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to nine months after it accepted her explanation of a contaminated supplement.

The 33-year-old has since returned to playing and is ranked 877 in the world, which demanded the special exemption to get into the qualifying portion of the year’s first grand slam in Melbourne.

“The thought of returning to Australia after three years is exciting and I’m very grateful to the tournament for this opportunity. I have been working hard to get ready for the 2025 season,” Halep said.

“The Australian Open has provided me with some of the best moments in my career, so I can’t wait to be back in Melbourne and playing in front of the Aussie fans.”

Happy Slam 🫶 @Simona_Halep

See you soon! #AO2025pic.twitter.com/1xEibhJOCX

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) December 18, 2024

Having fought hard to overturn her ban while spending 18 months out of the game, Halep reacted with outrage to news world No.2 Iga Swiatek was handed only a one-month ban after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).

Swiatek tested positive in August but the ITIA, which runs tennis’s anti-doping program, accepted that it was, like Halep’s positive, caused by contamination of her medication melatonin.

That didn’t ease Halep’s outrage.

“I have always believed in good, I have believed in the fairness of this sport, I have believed in kindness,” Halep wrote on Instagram.

“The injustice that was done to me was painful, is painful and maybe will always be painful.

“How is it possible that in identical cases that happened at about the same time (of the season), ITIA has completely different approaches, to my detriment?”

Halep last played at the Australian Open in 2022, having made the final in 2018.

Originally published as Cruz Hewitt, Bernard Tomic, Simona Halep given Australian Open qualifying wildcards