MELBOURNE — Cruz Hewitt, the son of former world No. 1 Lleyton, got here up quick in his bid to achieve the Australian Open predominant draw when he was overwhelmed 6-1, 6-4 by Nikoloz Basilashvili within the first spherical of qualifying Tuesday.
The 16-year-old echoed his father, who was within the crowd, with cries of “C’mon!” after profitable a few essential factors however was no match for the skilled Basilashvili, who was as soon as ranked sixteenth on this planet.
“Cruz confirmed up and performed very nicely,” Basilashvili mentioned on court docket. “Once I was 16, I’d have been pooping my pants to have to return out on the Grand Slam court docket and play a match like this.”
The elder Hewitt, now Australia’s Davis Cup captain, made the primary of his 20 straight Australian Open appearances as a 15-year-old qualifier in 1997.
He went on to achieve the highest of the world rankings at age 20 and received Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Bernard Tomic, one in all a string of abilities who’ve been touted as a possible successor to Hewitt as an Australian Grand Slam winner, additionally bowed out within the opening spherical of qualifying at Melbourne Park on Tuesday.
Now 32, Tomic performs most of his tennis on the Challenger circuit. His bid to return to the primary draw at his house Grand Slam for the primary time since 2022 lasted solely the hour it took him to lose 6-3, 6-1 to Jozef Kovalik.
Tomic, who was as soon as ranked as excessive as seventeenth on this planet and made the quarterfinals of Wimbledon as a teenage qualifier in 2011, reached the fourth spherical of the Australian Open thrice.
Reuters contributed to this report.
