{"id":756231,"date":"2026-07-11T07:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/756231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T07:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:18:13","slug":"hes-pretty-proud-cruz-hewitt-son-of-lleyton-reaches-boys-wimbledon-final-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/756231\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s pretty proud\u2019: Cruz Hewitt \u2013 son of Lleyton \u2013 reaches boys\u2019 Wimbledon final | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the perks of being a successful junior at the business end of a grand slam event is that you often get to practise with some of the men who are deep in the main draw. For Cruz Hewitt at Wimbledon<\/a>, that meant Arthur Fery.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old Australian jumped at the chance to practise with Fery, the British wildcard who was playing in the semi-finals here on Friday<\/a>, this week and repeated the trick just before his last-four match in the boys\u2019 event. It worked wonders for Hewitt, whose increasingly impressive all-round game was in tune as he knocked off Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands, one of the brightest junior prospects. His 6-4, 6-4 win sent him through to the final.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the first Australian to reach the final since Alex de Minaur 10 years ago and he\u2019s done it without dropping a set. His father, the former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt<\/a>, was sitting courtside and was clearly delighted, giving him a little rap on the back in celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s pretty proud,\u201d the teenager said of the former world No 1. \u201cHe\u2019s happy with how far I\u2019ve come with my mentality, my game style.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a player, no one was more intense on court than Hewitt, who won the US Open in 2001 before triumphing at Wimbledon the following year. While he\u2019s not the coach \u2013 Wayne Arthurs fills that role \u2013 Hewitt Sr is a mentor and constant source of positivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in my corner,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cYeah, he\u2019s coaching a little bit, but he\u2019s also just there for support. Every time I look over at him, he\u2019s showing me positivity, so that gets me up and about as well. And I use that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arthur Fery practises on court with Cruz Hewitt before his main draw semi-final. Photograph: James Marsh\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

It was noticeable, too, that his father made a point of sending a single clap, often just after everyone else clapped. It was something Judy Murray used to do for her son Andy, the timing of the sound letting him know where it was coming from. \u201cI actually haven\u2019t thought about that,\u201d Cruz said, when it was pointed out to him. \u201cActually, now I\u2019m thinking, maybe he does. Well, if it\u2019s working \u2026 keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up as the son of a star player has its advantages and disadvantages. Father and son still practise together and even play sets \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve won a few of them,\u201d Cruz said \u2013 and having someone with his knowledge and tactical nous can only help. On the other hand, trying to live up to the expectations that come with being Lleyton Hewitt\u2019s tennis-playing son is far from easy.<\/p>\n

But Cruz seems to be level-headed on and off the court. On it, he stayed calm when he was broken early in the second set against Boogaard, breaking straight back and then going on to win five games out of six to clinch victory. \u201cI\u2019m really happy with my performance,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I, like all my matches this week, was very level-headed. Stayed pretty composed throughout that whole match, and then that allowed me to play good tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz Hewitt keeps his eyes on the ball on Friday. Photograph: Dave Shopland\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Off the court, he is amiable, relaxed and seemingly at ease in front of the media. While only one Australian journalist chatted to him after his first-round win, more than 10 writers crammed into one of the smaller rooms here, keen to learn what makes him tick, after his semi-final victory.<\/p>\n

He concedes that being Lleyton\u2019s son \u201cis obviously always there, but I take the positives out of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI do what I can, block out all the other noise. It doesn\u2019t bother me too much,\u201d he said. I just focus on myself and I just try to do my best each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lleyton Hewitt and Bec Hewitt watch Cruz Hewitt during his third-round match. Photograph: James Marsh\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Leo Borg, son of the great Bj\u00f6rn Borg, found it understandably tough; Hewitt seems to take it all in his stride. \u201cI\u2019ve always had this type of personality, which has obviously helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the fears for Hewitt in his early years on the junior circuit was that he may lack the height to have big weapons. It may be a trick of the eye, but Hewitt seems to have grown since the Australian Open, though he doesn\u2019t know exactly how tall he is: \u201cI think I\u2019m about 6ft 2-ish, he said.\u201d It\u2019s helping, clearly, with his average first serve speed against Boogaard coming in at 120mph (194kph).<\/p>\n

With a flat backhand and heavy forehand to back up the serve, together with good movement, Cruz considers grass his best surface. On Sunday, he plays the US\u2019s Jordan Lee for the title, looking to go one step further than De Minaur, who lost to Denis Shapovalov in the 2016 final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just got to do the exact same things I\u2019ve done all week,\u201d he said. \u201cI go out there and back myself and then I leave it all out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the perks of being a successful junior at the business end of a grand slam event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-756231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}