De Minaur, who won the clash in Washington D.C. 6-2 6-3 in just over an hour, warmly embraced Cruz at the end of the match.<\/p>\n
The pair go way back thanks to the older Hewitt inviting De Minaur into the family home when he was just beginning his own tennis career.<\/p>\n
De Minaur lived with Hewitt in Sydney and Melbourne when he returned to Australia from Spain as a teenager – a move Demon said he owes everything to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to just have that inside advice all the time and get [Lleyton\u2019s] thoughts on everything,\u201d De Minaur said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stayed with him in Sydney and also at his place in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the French Open in the juniors, he came out and we had a nice chat and told me that he would be very supportive of everything I needed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been unbelievable the amount of stuff he\u2019s done for me. I couldn\u2019t be more grateful. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spent time with his family and we went out with the family for dinner together … it was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz is now seeking to follow in De Minaur\u2019s footsteps after winning his first ATP tie at the Mubadala DC Open aged 17-years-old.<\/p>\n
Demon expects their paths will cross in the future, revealing it felt strange to be playing the youngster so early in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely weird,\u201d de Minaur said. \u201cI knew I was going to play him on the tour some day, but I didn\u2019t actually expect it to be this week. It was an amazing feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven all the lead up, seeing all the incredible pictures that we have together and how we\u2019ve grown up, I\u2019m glad I managed to get through. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019But I\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to have many battles in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur played Cruz Hewitt for the first time this week and said it felt \u201cweird\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[16077,16819,16894,16889,16896,16893,16518,16890,16902,362,16909,16564,16617,16676,16567,16879,16885,459,16900,13712,12468,5199,11249,16904,16881,15750,14887,16897,16882,16901,16888,16907,16883,15990,15970,12796,16898,16603,412,15975,16877,16606,456,9963,16910,16887,1622,16886,16905,16878,16015,15968,16019,14907,16884,16875,16348,1584,16649,16386,16903,16876,16880,16895,16891,16700,16593,16389,16582,16892,16899,15678,5823,16906,16908,15777,6583,15978],"class_list":["post-46181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alex-de-minaur","tag-s-footsteps","tag-s-thoughts","tag-17-years-old-demon","tag-a-meeting","tag-a-move-demon","tag-a-nice-chat","tag-a-teenager","tag-a-touching-gesture","tag-a-young-player","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-all-class","tag-all-the-incredible-pictures","tag-all-the-lead","tag-all-the-time","tag-an-amazing-feeling","tag-an-hour","tag-an-incredible-gesture","tag-australia","tag-bec-act","tag-cruz","tag-cruz-hewitt","tag-de-minaur","tag-demon","tag-dinner","tag-each-other-thanks","tag-hewitt","tag-his-career","tag-his-family","tag-his-first-atp-tie","tag-his-match","tag-his-own-tennis-career-de-minaur","tag-his-place","tag-just-1-de-minaur","tag-kayo","tag-kayo-sports-new","tag-lleyton","tag-lleyton-and-bec-hewitt","tag-many-battles","tag-melbourne","tag-overseas-live","tag-several-years","tag-some-day","tag-spain","tag-stars","tag-stuff","tag-stunning-lleyton","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-and-melbourne","tag-that-inside-advice","tag-the-amount","tag-the-best","tag-the-biggest-aussie-sports","tag-the-clash","tag-the-end","tag-the-family","tag-the-family-home","tag-the-first-time","tag-the-french-open","tag-the-future","tag-the-hewitt-family","tag-the-juniors","tag-the-making","tag-the-match-the-pair","tag-the-mubadala-dc-open","tag-the-older-hewitt","tag-the-pair","tag-the-tour","tag-the-washington-open","tag-the-years","tag-the-youngster","tag-their-paths","tag-this-week","tag-time","tag-two-aussies","tag-washington-d-c-6-2-6-3","tag-washington-dc","tag-years","tag-your-first-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}