London: Cruz Hewitt is back at Wimbledon with “unfinished business” and a former Davis Cup hero as his coach, hoping he can sign off his junior career in style with the boys’ singles title this week.
The much-hyped son of former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt – the 2002 Wimbledon men’s champion – has not played a junior event since last year’s US Open, but has returned to the All England club a taller, stronger and more-polished prospect.
Hewitt’s parents, Lleyton and Bec, and his coach, Wayne Arthurs, were part of the support crew in the court three stands to watch him demolish Spanish left-hander Valentin Gonzalez-Galino 6-1, 6-2 in only 43 minutes on Sunday local time.
The 17-year-old Australian, whose men’s ranking is at a career high of No.606, struck 14 winners, half of which were aces, prompting Arthurs – one of the best servers ever – to joke afterwards that he had served like him.
“I wouldn’t mind Wayne’s serve, so I felt pretty good after he said that,” a smiling Hewitt told this masthead.
“I’ve been looking forward to playing here again, and I felt like I played some good tennis. Wimbledon is such a special event. I had the chance to play juniors again, and grass is probably my favourite surface, so I thought it’s a good opportunity for me.
“It’s the only junior tournament I’ve played [this year]. I’ve been trying to focus on the men’s circuit more, but I’m looking forward to this week.”
Gonzalez-Galino is a top-40 junior, but was thoroughly outclassed and out-powered, even looking up to the skies and doing the sign of the cross before shouting “one game” after finally holding serve early in the second set.
Bec hung around after the rest of Team Hewitt left the stadium to snap a photo of her son, dressed head-to-toe in Nike and wielding a Yonex racquet like his famous father, as he signed autographs and packed up his gear then walked from the court.
That is where the similarities end.
Hewitt is almost 190 centimetres tall these days, has filled out from another year of gym work, and is a hyper-aggressive baseliner with a particularly devastating forehand that he regularly winds up on and unleashes at full throttle.
“Serve then forehand is the big game I want to play, and I also back my backhand all day,” he said. “I feel like I definitely have a very different style to my dad, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Hewitt won a round of the boys’ singles in his Wimbledon debut last year before losing in straight sets to 11th-seeded Finn Oskari Paldanius, who reacted by cheekily doing Lleyton’s “vicht” celebration, where he points his hand back towards his face.
It was the type of action from opponents that the teenager will likely continue to face as he climbs the ranks, but he was more concerned with not playing to the standard he knows he is capable of.
Hewitt has already started making his mark on the men’s tour – France’s Moise Kouame is the only player his age ranked higher than him – and believes his best level is good enough to win the Wimbledon boys’ title. The last Australian to do that was Luke Saville in 2011.
He showed his grass-court prowess in March, reaching the final and semi-final in back-to-back weeks in lower-tier men’s events in Wodonga and Swan Hill, and also played in Dublin before the Wimbledon junior tournament.
“My level is definitely there, but your opponents could be playing really good tennis as well. I back myself at the end of the day, so we’ll see,” Hewitt said.
“I feel like from last year I have a bit of unfinished business. I was pretty disappointed with how I performed last year, but I’ve matured a lot since then, and I feel like I’ve upped my game a lot – and especially, I’ve gotten a lot stronger mentally as well.
“I wanted to have another go at Wimbledon.”
Hewitt received warm support from pockets of Australian fans in his first-round victory, and had plenty of backing in Australian Open men’s qualifying the past two years as well.
He might even be in the mix for a main draw singles wildcard at next year’s edition if he makes as much ground in the rankings as he hopes in the second half of the year.
“I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to go out there and play, especially against some top guys,” Hewitt said.
“You learn so much from the experience with the big crowd against quality players. It’s really fun, so I just want to keep proving myself, and work towards doing that more. Top 300 would be good [by the end of this year] – that is the big goal – but I’m prepared to do all the hard work because I really want to get there.”
Fellow Australian juniors Daniel Jovanovski and Renee Alame are also into the second round.
Marc McGowan travelled to London with Tennis Australia’s support.
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