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Expectations around the potential for the son of Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt continue to grow after Cruz was nominated for a major award.
The 15-year-old is among three nominations for Tennis Australia’s male junior athlete of the year, with the award to be handed out at the John Newcombe medal ceremony on December 9 in Melbourne.
Currently ranked 104 on the junior world rankings, Cruz won two consecutive junior ITF titles in August and also claimed his first senior victory later that month when he beat a Dutch player seven years his senior at an ITF event in Bali.
That win, over then world number 993 Thijmen Loof, gave the younger Hewitt bragging rights over his father, who didn’t secure a main draw win on the pro circuit until he was 16.
Cruz, who will turn 16 in December, is expected to return to the junior singles draw at the Australian Open in January after he received a main draw wildcard in 2024 but was beaten in the first round.
At the launch of the Australian open last month his famous father, who is in Spain this week as captain of Australia’s Davis Cup team, said his son’s future was “pretty exciting” and he wasn’t daunted by the extra attention given his bloodlines.
“I don’t think he focuses on it too much – he’s like most kids these days, they just go about their thing,” Lleyton said.
One thing – he’s never been shy of playing on big courts or in front of people, so he sort of takes it in his stride.
“It’s his journey, and it’s a very long journey, and he’s only just got his first ATP point, which is fantastic to start somewhere – but it does feel like a bloody long journey.”
While Cruz may have won his first professional match at a younger age than is father, he has some work to do to match Lleyton’s next feat, taking down Andre Agassi on the way to a hometown victory in Adelaide in 1998, then becoming world no.1 three years later.
While Hewitt junior is on the verge of the top 100 in the junior rankings, Queenslander Emerson Jones, the world No.1, is in line for the female junior athlete of the year, with a wildcard into the main draw of the Australian open potentially in her future.