{"id":41035,"date":"2026-07-29T18:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41035"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:18:07","slug":"hewitts-son-cruz-earns-first-atp-tour-win-in-washington-opener","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/hewitts-son-cruz-earns-first-atp-tour-win-in-washington-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Hewitt\u2019s son Cruz earns first ATP Tour win in Washington opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt\u2019s son Cruz continued to impress in his breakout summer on Tuesday, earning his first ATP Tour-level win at the Washington Open at the age of 17 with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Marcos Giron.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The first-round victory capped a remarkable month for the Australian youngster, who finished runner-up to American Jordan Lee in the Wimbledon boys\u2019 final nearly a quarter of a century after his father triumphed on the famous lawns of London.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Cruz, ranked 612 in the world, is a qualifier at the ATP 500 tournament in Washington, where his father won the 2004 title.<\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal to win here,\u201d Cruz said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cObviously I saw my dad play here. I came to his last tournament, I remember. There are so many memories of that. To make it to round two, it\u2019s very special.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Victory ensured Cruz became the youngest player to win a match in the event since Kei Nishikori in 2007, and he said his father\u2019s advice proved useful.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt was my first tour main draw match, so (he told me) just to enjoy it and take every point one-by-one, really enjoy the atmosphere and the crowd,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to do as best as I could. I just see there\u2019s a little pressure, but I try to take the positive and come with it as well. I\u2019m happy with how I\u2019m dealing with it so far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After becoming the fourth man born in 2008 or later to earn a tour-level victory, following Diego Dedura, Thijs Boogaard and Moise Kouame, Cruz faces either Stefanos Tsitsipas or fellow Australian Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously if I play Alex, that would be a dream to share the court with him,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s like my older brother. I\u2019ve known him basically my whole life. He\u2019s stayed with us, and we have Christmas together, also. He\u2019s taught me so much; I think that would be a pretty cool memory for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":39883,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-41035","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Victory ensured Cruz became the youngest player to win a match in the event since Kei Nishikori in 2007.","published_date":"","news_description":"Victory ensured Cruz became the youngest player to win a match in the event since Kei Nishikori in 2007.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41049,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41035\/revisions\/41049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}