Tennis fans left saddened over disappointing development around Cruz Hewitt
Tennis fans were left in awe of Cruz Hewitt's display at the French Open on Sunday, but saddened that he couldn't progress past the first round of the junior boys event. The 16-year-old showed the same trademark fight that was common in father Lleyton's matches, taking his older and higher-ranked opponent to the brink.
Cruz went through qualifying to make the junior event at Roland Garros, and proved a handful on Sunday for Pierluigi Basile. The Italian player is two years older and higher-placed in the world junior standings at No.24, compared to Hewitt at 41.
The 16-year-old Aussie managed to win the second set against his 18-year-old opponent, before succumbing 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-3. Hewitt lost a very tight opening set in a tie-breaker, and looked headed for a straight-sets exit when Basile served for the match at 5-3 in the second.
Basile also had a match point at 5-4, but Hewitt managed to reel off four consecutive games to send the match to a decider. The Aussie youngster was revving up the crowd and willing them to keep him in the contest, showing the same grit and determination that his father showed.
But in the end Hewitt ran out of steam and it was Basile advancing to the second round. The Aussie lost in two hours and 10 minutes, unable to reach the second round as he had done at the junior event in January at the Australian Open.
Hewitt had also lost in the first round in the senior qualifying event in Melbourne after being granted a wildcard. The 16-year-old is trying to emulate his famous father and make a career of his own, but has so far failed to make it past the second round of a junior grand slam event. Fans were left impressed by his performance on Sunday, but disappointed he couldn't go any further.
He wasn't the only son of a famous player to feature on Sunday, with fifth seed Jagger Leach beating Kazakh player Zangar Nurlanuly 6-1 1-6 6-0. Leach is the son of American former triple grand slam winner Lindsay Davenport.
Hewitt's fellow Aussie 16-year-old Emerson Jones - the world's No.2 female junior - will kick off her campaign as top seed in the girls' event against US qualifier Capucine Jauffret on Monday (local time), The other Australian in the boys' tournament (Ty Host) will face US sixth seed Benjamin Willwerth.
The only Australian remaining in the senior singles tournament is Daria Kasatkina, after Alexei Popyrin proved no match for Tommy Paul on Sunday night. Popyrin's encouraging week in Paris ended in anti-climatic fashion after a crushing 6-3 6-3 6-3 loss to 12th seed Paul in the fourth round.
"I'm definitely happy with my week's work, just disappointed with the way it ended," the 25-year-old said. "Look, if I lost this match and I played good tennis then, then I would have been sufficed and happy, but I lost and didn't play my best, really didn't do what I wanted to do, what I've been what I've been banging on about all week, consistency.
"There was no consistency today, it was a very, very up-and-down match. And it was just not the way I planned for it."
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Kasatkina will face 18-year-old wizz-kid Mirra Andreeva on Monday after a 6-1 7-5 defeat of former World No.2 Paula Badosa in the third round. Kasatkina is playing her first tournament under the Australian flag after switching allegiances from Russia.
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New York Times
16 minutes ago
- New York Times
Game, set, match — SABALENKA!
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Fox Sports
18 minutes ago
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Washington Post
25 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Tennis players wake up early or stay up late and it can be anyone's guess what time matches start
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