{"id":151692,"date":"2025-06-02T08:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T08:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/151692\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T08:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T08:55:11","slug":"lleyton-hewitts-son-cruz-suffers-big-setback-in-his-quest-to-follow-in-his-dads-footsteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/151692\/","title":{"rendered":"Lleyton Hewitt&#8217;s son Cruz suffers big setback in his quest to follow in his dad&#8217;s footsteps"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Aussie is currently ranked 41st for world juniors\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Displayed his famous father&#8217;s grit in recent match\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By IAN CHADBAND FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  21:52 EDT, 1 June 2025   |  Updated:  21:54 EDT, 1 June 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Cruz Hewitt has rekindled memories of his dad Lleyton&#8217;s battling heyday as he went down fighting in his first-round contest in the boys&#8217; event at the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/french_open\/index.html\" id=\"mol-b94a9d10-3f4a-11f0-8857-e5db286eaf68\" rel=\"noopener\">French Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The 16-year-old son of Australia&#8217;s former world No.1, who had gone through qualifying to make the event at Roland Garros, proved a handful on Sunday for Italian Pierluigi Basile, two years his senior and higher-placed in the world junior standings, before succumbing 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Hewitt lost the tightest of opening sets on a breaker and looked practically down and out as Basile served for the match at 5-3 in the second set and earned a match point at 5-4, but the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/sydney\/index.html\" id=\"mol-b942fbf0-3f4a-11f0-8857-e5db286eaf68\" rel=\"noopener\">Sydney<\/a> youngster fought tigerishly to turn it around and take the match into a decider.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Italian had the superior firepower but Hewitt wouldn&#8217;t lie down, revving up the the galleries packed round the tight court No.4 with the sort of crowd-rousing exhortations taken straight from his father&#8217;s book.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ultimately, he lost in two hours 10 minutes, unable to reach the second round as he had done at the junior event in January at the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/australian_open\/index.html\" id=\"mol-b94a7600-3f4a-11f0-8857-e5db286eaf68\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian Open<\/a>, where he also lost in the first round in the qualifiers for the senior event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The loss marked Cruz&#8217;s grand slam return after his time at this year&#8217;s tournament in Melbourne was marked by controversy surrounding him and fellow Aussie <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/nick_kyrgios\/index.html\" id=\"mol-b93aec00-3f52-11f0-8857-e5db286eaf68\" rel=\"noopener\">Nick Kyrgios<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-f76f3d253edd38a2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/98949949-14770761-image-m-23_1748828627683.jpg\" height=\"786\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Cruz Hewitt showed the grit his dad Lleyton became famous for as he fought back strongly before crashing out of the French Open junior event on Sunday\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Cruz Hewitt showed the grit his dad Lleyton became famous for as he fought back strongly before crashing out of the French Open junior event on Sunday<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-d6e52b93dac8bf5a\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/98949959-14770761-image-a-21_1748828618714.jpg\" height=\"846\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Hewitt survived being down 5-3 in the second set, then giving his opponent match point before turning it around to take the match to a deciding set\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Hewitt survived being down 5-3 in the second set, then giving his opponent match point before turning it around to take the match to a deciding set<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-4a933cfe403a67c1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/98949945-14770761-image-a-22_1748828622529.jpg\" height=\"936\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Cruz (pictured with his famous parents Lleyton and Bec) also lost in the first round when he competed at the Australian Open earlier this year\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Cruz (pictured with his famous parents Lleyton and Bec) also lost in the first round when he competed at the Australian Open earlier this year<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Kyrgios was accused of harassing Hewitt over a photo the youngster posted to social media showing him posing with world No.1 Jannik Sinner, who was awaiting his punishment for breaching anti-doping rules at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Kyrgios, who has been a vocal critic of Sinner, was not happy at seeing the 16-year-old with the Italian.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Kyrgios commented under Cruz&#8217;s post: &#8216;Love ya Cruz but this is wild&#8217;, then later adding &#8216;Cooked post&#8217; with a needle emoji.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Aussie firebrand also wrote: &#8216;Thought we were boys&#8217; with several broken-heart emojis, with his comments <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" class=\"class\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/article-14260579\/Andy-Roddick-Nick-Kyrgios-Cruz-Hewitt-Jannik-Sinner-assault-ex-girlfriend.html\" rel=\"noopener\">drawing heavy fire from tennis fans and great of the game Andy Roddick<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Kyrgios later explained that he&#8217;s good friends with Cruz and <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" class=\"class\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/article-14252733\/Nick-Kyrgios-attack-Lleyton-Hewitt-son-Cruz-tennis-Australian-Open.html\" rel=\"noopener\">his remarks were a joke between the pair<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">On Monday, 16-year-old Emerson Jones, the world&#8217;s No.2 female junior, kicks off her campaign as top seed in the girls&#8217; event against US qualifier Capucine Jauffret, while the other Australian in the boys&#8217; tournament Ty Host will face US sixth seed Benjamin Willwerth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Hewitt wasn&#8217;t the only son of a famous player to feature in Sunday&#8217;s program, with fifth seed Jagger Leach, whose mother is American former triple grand slam winner Lindsay Davenport, beating Kazakh Zangar Nurlanuly 6-1 1-6 6-0.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Lleyton Hewitt&#8217;s son Cruz suffers big setback in his quest to follow in his dad&#8217;s footsteps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aussie is currently ranked 41st for world juniors\u00a0 Displayed his famous father&#8217;s grit in recent match\u00a0 By IAN&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[186,92,5066,93,79,1862,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-151692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-french-open","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sydney","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114612936747437412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}