Cruz Hewitt was selected to make his debut for Australia in the Junior Davis Cup, following in the squad tennis the footsteps of his famous father Layton.
Leighton captains the senior Davis Cup team in the World Cup of Tennis event, which has long been one of the favorite parts of his sporting life – and the man who won the Cup twice as a player will be proud of his talented 15 – the year-old son now continues the tradition.
Cruz, the 226th junior in the ITF rankings, will wear the green and gold for the first time since earlier this year makes his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open for boys.
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Cruise will play alongside 16-year-old West Australian Cameron Burton and 15-year-old South Australian Jeffrey Strydom at the Asia-Oceania qualifying event in Kazakhstan from May 20-25.
The top four nations in the qualifiers will advance to the finals in November.
The team will be captained by Sandon Stolle, a former world number 2 doubles player who is himself the son of the famous tennis player, Fred Stolle, a two-time Grand Slam winner.
“I’m looking forward to taking my first junior team to Davis Cup and continuing to support our high-performing athletes,” said Stolle, Tennis Australia’s national development team coach in South Australia.
“It’s a great experience for these young guys to play for Australia and be part of the green and gold history of tennis.”
The competition is for teams including under-16 players, which takes place after qualifying for the equivalent girls’ event, the Junior Billie Jean King Cup, at the same venue in Shymkent next week.
The Australian Junior BJK Cup team is 14-year-old Renee Alame (NSW), Ava Beck (15, Victoria) and Talia Kokinis (15, Queensland) and will be captained by Jessica Moore, who played in the senior competition for Australia .
Cruise’s burgeoning career reached a new peak when, 27 years after Leighton became the youngest qualifier to make the main draw at the Australian Open at just 15, he made his first appearance at Melbourne Park.
He felt what Layton was going through as a large crowd packed Court 3 for the occasion.
Among those in the stands were his former world No.1 father and mother Beck, Leighton’s parents Glynn and Cherilyn, Australian star Jordan Thompson and the 15-year-old’s own coach, Peter Luczak.
The family shared a special moment in the morning when Lucak stepped aside so Layton could have the honor of warming up with his son.
Hewitt got off to a hot start in his match against 17-year-old sixth seed Alexander Razeghi when he won long forehands to break the American, but his powerful forehand began to betray him from the very next game.
A rain delay in the first set temporarily halted play before the match resumed and Razeghi raced to a 6-2 6-3 victory in one hour and 26 minutes, the crowd in the 3,000-seat arena giving both players a hearty ovation.
“Just incredibly proud to be honest,” Leighton told Nine before the game.
“He wanted me to come out and warm him up. They asked me late last night if I would actually go out to warm him up this morning on Shaw Court 3. Just a really special moment.
“My first main draw match at the Australian Open was actually on Shaw Court 3 as well, so I have great memories of playing here.”
– with 7NEWS
