Inside the rise of teenage tennis prodigy Cruz Hewitt, powered by his legendary father Lleyton

His name: Lleyton Hewitt.

“What stands out with Lleyton at that age was he lost a match over there and he was hurting the next day like you haven’t seen anyone hurting,’’ McCurdy recalls. “And he was tenacious and fast, the same qualities he had when he was older.’’

For the past six years, although less often in the 12 months or so since the family relocated from Melbourne to Sydney, McCurdy has been working with another hugely promising junior and aspiring pro who is tracking nicely at the age of 14.

His name: Cruz Hewitt.

McCurdy sees similarities in pure competitiveness between the dual grand slam singles winner and his son, now being coached by family friend Peter Luczak, as well as a relatively flat two-handed backhand that is much-improved.

Yet if there is also a shared penchant for fist-pumping celebrations on court, then there are clear differences in game style, with Hewitt junior’s built around an imposing serve and heavy topspin forehand.

A recent growth spurt means Cruz — the 2021 Australian 12/U clay court champion who won four ITF 18/U titles in 2023, recently scored his first professional win in a qualifying round in Darwin, while twice in the past three months falling just short of reaching an ITF Futures main draw against much older opponents — is now taller than 178cm Lleyton.

“I’ve seen him play and it’s impressive,’’ says respected Australian tennis identity Wally Masur. “He looks like he’s gonna be relatively tall, he’s a slightly different build, he’s got a fast arm and he seems pretty aggressive.

“What can you say? I guess if he’s got a little bit of Lleyton, he’ll go a long way.’’

Yet, even acknowledging the difficulties of comparing age-specific potential, the experienced and understated McCurdy — whose client list includes a young Mark Philippoussis — seems better-placed than most.

Back when travelling with 14-year-old Lleyton, there were few indicators the feisty kid was going to become the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon champion, remain the Australian Open’s youngest-ever qualifier (15 years, 11 months), then claim the Adelaide International title less than 12 months later.

“But Cruz has got a lot of the qualities to be a great player, and it’s pretty brave of him to take on tennis after what Lleyton’s achieved,” McCurdy says. “He’s got a real passion for it. He’s going to be a good player. It’s just a matter of how good, really, and he’s a pretty good player already.

“He’s winning matches against seniors in Futures events and doing well in international juniors. I think when he’s playing his best tennis he’s as good as most kids in the world around his age, but there’s so many things that come into it, and there’s so many countries. It’s a tough international sport.

“What he’s achieving at the moment and the way he’s progressing, he’s got a good chance of being a top player. He loves it, that’s what he wants to do with his life, and he’s pretty advanced for his age. But he also understand he’s got a long way to go, still.’’

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Christian and Casper Ruud, Bryan and Ben Shelton, Petr and Seb Korda and Bjorn and Leo Borg are a few of the growing group of father-son examples in the men’s game.

In Australia, a standout pair was 19-time major winner Fred Stolle and his son Sandon, the 1998 US Open doubles champion and top 50 singles guy, who now works in development for Tennis Australia at its Adelaide academy.

“I had a chat to Lleyton about a year ago and was he saying, ‘Oh, (Cruz) just doesn’t listen to me’,’’ Sandon Stolle, a former Davis Cup teammate of Hewitt senior, told CODE Sports. “It’s a father-son thing. Especially at that age, 13, 14, Cruz probably still thinks that he knows it all even though his dad’s done what he’s done.

“But Lleyton’s done a good job in the sense he’s got some people around Cruz. He’s been lucky that he’s been around Davis Cup and the likes of Rochey (Tony Roche), and he’s had some good guys travelling with him, like Luczak.

“So they’re probably delivering Lleyton’s messages in a sense, and that was pretty similar to me. My old man would get on court with me — as I know Lleyton does with Cruz from time to time — and go through a few things, and then talk about it to the coaches that were working with me, and they delivered the message.’’

While a famous name can be burdensome, of course, there are also myriad advantages to being exposed to the elite environment and gaining access to pricey private coaching at a young age; to be around locker-rooms and practice courts.

The Hewitts spent a week or so at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca after Wimbledon this year, and the family’s tennis contacts stretch across the globe.

“Lleyton’s got his peer group that he played with all around the world, so if Cruz goes to an academy, I’m sure they’ll look after Lleyton’s son, and that’s an awesome opportunity for Cruz,’’ says Sandon, who benefited similarly from Fred’s ties with the legendary Harry Hopman.

“Dad always knew that ‘Hop’ would look after me, the same way that if Lleyton sends him to Rafa’s, or wherever, he’s gonna get looked after.’’

If size is looming as an obvious contrast, and Lleyton has spoken previously about hoping Cruz would gain the centimetres to help deliver a few more free points on serve, then Hewitt junior may turn out to be a nice hybrid model.

“The men’s athlete out there has changed even from Lleyton’s time. They’re bigger and stronger and you’ve got to have that now to compete at this level. That’s just the evolution of our sport,’’ says Stolle.

“Is he gonna be like a Lleyton and just scrap for every ball and get every ball back? Or maybe they’re setting his game up a to be a little bit more aggressive and get himself up in the court because he’s got a little bit more size?’’

More will be revealed this summer, when Cruz — who turns 15 on December 11 — contests the 18/U division of the Australian Junior Tour Masters in Melbourne, and perhaps earns an Aus Open wildcard for what would be his junior slam debut.

Yet from what Stolle has seen, there’s already heightened interest in Lleyton’s lad at local events, where perhaps the motivation of wanting just that little bit more to ‘beat a Hewitt’ is counter-balanced by being a touch intimidated at the same time.

“They’re kids, so when they go to a tournament and Cruz is there, it’s like, ‘There’s Cruz Hewitt’, so they almost put him on a bit of a pedestal in a sense. Or it’s just, ‘Let’s go watch him play’,’’ says Stolle.

“A few of the younger ones who are not experienced enough would probably be a bit psyched out by it, or just give him a little bit too much respect, and that’s always a few freebies (points).’’

What Stolle junior has also seen from both sides is that, when Lleyton exploded into senior tennis by upstaging Andre Agassi and others in 1998 to win the first of his 30 career singles titles, he graduated with the help of a protective Davis Cup environment that started with orange boy duties in 1996.

“I think Lleyton felt like all of us were his big brothers in a sense, and now he’s doing the same thing for Cruz … He’s had some people around him that Lleyton respects and knows he’s gonna get looked after when he’s not around,” Stolle says.

“But at the end of the day Cruz is the one that’s gotta want it … and he is wanting to pick up the racquet and hit tennis balls. I remember coming to Melbourne when he was on court doing a lot of training with John McCurdy, and even at that early age he was just loving it, and Lleyton was there picking up balls.’’

And acting as water boy. When this reporter watched a Cruz-McCurdy practice session in 2019, there was something slightly surreal about the former world No.1 dashing off to fill the drink bottle of a spirited little blond kid wearing a back-to-front baseball cap and hitting those straight-armed backhands.

As Masur points out, a parent-as-coach arrangement is not unusual in tennis, “but when the parent is the past player, that adds another dynamic, too.’’

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McCurdy, now 63, was a touch surprised to have been approached for a coaching role just over six years ago, thinking perhaps someone younger would have been preferred.

But Lleyton Hewitt has nothing if not a long memory, and recalled the Victorian’s influence in his own early years in touring teams. So, from the age of eight, Cruz and McCurdy would hit three times a week — apparently without interference from dad.

“I worked closely with Lleyton through all sessions, which was easy as we were always on the same page about what needed to be done,’’ says McCurdy, whose focus was largely on improving the technical side of the youngster’s game.

“Cruz always had a pretty good service action, which he’s worked on from a young age. He’s got a big serve, big forehand, which has changed quite a lot from where we started, and an all-court game. He needs to develop his net game a bit further. Develop everything, really. He’s still so young, 14.’’

Now based in different states, the pair remains in touch. When the Davis Cup captain was away preparing for last week’s finals in Spain, where the Aussies lost the final to Italy, Cruz spent a long weekend in Melbourne, where McCurdy, now the director of coaching at Royal South Yarra, was struck by how much the kid had grown in just a few months.

“You can just see the power starting to kick in a little bit, and even though he’s still a little boy he’s actually taller than Lleyton now, and you notice the confidence he gets with the extra power on his serve.’’

Just as Ash Barty’s original mentor, Jim Joyce, happily handed over to a handpicked Jason Stoltenberg, who in turn helped find an ideal successor in Craig Tyzzer, McCurdy sees former world No.64 Luczak — a hard worker and solid citizen who extracted the most from his ability — as a perfect fit now that the home-schooled Cruz will be spending more and more time on the road.

So, how involved is dad? “Oh, he’s behind everything,’’ says McCurdy. “Look, they’ve got a great relationship. It’s a special relationship. I don’t think it’s necessarily always easy when you decide you want to be a tennis player and your father’s been world No.1, so there’s things that come with that.

“But Lleyton can distance himself enough to get Peter Luczak involved, so I think he’s really going about it the right way. And, on the whole, Cruz, it’s almost like he’s made to be a tennis player. It’s not coming from Lleyton.

“He’s so passionate about it and he’s got that real drive to be a top player, and what a great thing to do, and you’ve got Lleyton in your corner as well as Peter Luczak, that’s a pretty amazing opportunity that a lot of other kids don’t have.’’

Adds Masur: “The thing with Lleyton is that he’s so committed to the sport and he’s got such a tennis brain, and he’s been on that journey himself. Not a bad resource to have is it?’’

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Like the rest of us, Masur has watched Cruz — the middle Hewitt child between sisters Mia and Ava — grow up in the public eye.

Crying on Rod Laver Arena before 15,000 fans as a racquet-wielding toddler during a 2011 charity event.

Waving “Go Dad” signs in the player box.

As the primary schooler posing in a suit on the Newcombe Medal’s blue carpet with his idol Alex de Minaur.

In TV advertisements for sunscreen and video games with his dad.

The kid who started out loving soccer when the family was based in the Bahamas was, let’s face it, always going to be a tennis player.

And now almost is.

Masur is aware of the benefits of intensive tutelage during the formative years “because it is a technical game, and it’s one of those things that it’s hard to change things as you evolve and get a bit older, so he’s obviously put the work in at a young age’’.

Passion? Tick.

Team Cruz? Tick.

“Lleyton’s the captain of Cruz’s overall program, which makes total sense. He will make sure nothing is left to chance and will take full advantage of every opportunity which presents,’’ says ex-pro and current Kooyong and international tournament director Peter Johnston, who hit with Cruz in Melbourne during Covid.

“It’s not going to be about the juniors in Australia for Cruz. It’s all about getting the right sort of preparation for a major professional career. It’s all part of a bigger journey.’’

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