Cruz Hewitt may have walked away from the Citi Open in Washington with a defeat on his record, but the 17-year-old is heading home with something far more valuable: a jaw-dropping leap of approximately 244 spots in the ATP Rankings.
The teenage son of Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt entered the week sitting at No. 606 in the world. Thanks to his first-round victory over Marcos Giron, a solid 6-3, 6-4 win, Hewitt is projected to land somewhere around No. 370 when the updated rankings drop on Monday. That kind of progress at his age is the sort of momentum that can define a career trajectory.
His reward for that win was a second-round meeting with defending champion Alex de Minaur, a fellow Australian who has known Hewitt for years and practiced alongside him on multiple occasions. De Minaur proved too experienced and too powerful on serve, closing out the match 6-2, 6-3 without allowing the youngster much breathing room.
Despite the scoreline, de Minaur was full of warmth toward his young compatriot afterward. He described the encounter as genuinely strange given their shared history, noting that seeing old photos of the two of them together made the occasion feel surreal. He also expressed confidence that many competitive battles between the two lie ahead.
Hewitt's path to Washington was already impressive. He had reached the final of the Wimbledon junior singles event just weeks earlier, signaling that his game is more than capable of translating from juniors to the professional tour.
De Minaur now advances to a quarter-final against Brandon Nakashima, who defeated him at Queen's Club earlier this season on grass.
TennisDraw users had de Minaur marked as a strong favorite in this all-Australian matchup, and the defending champion delivered exactly as predicted.
