Cruz Hewitt exits Australian Open qualifying in first round
Cruz Hewitt’s hopes of earning a place in the Australian Open main draw ended on Tuesday after he was eliminated in the first round of qualifying at Melbourne Park.
Watched by his parents, former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt and Bec Hewitt, the 17-year-old was beaten 6-3, 6-3 in 76 minutes by American Michael Zheng in front of a packed crowd at ANZ Arena, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
It marked the second consecutive year that Hewitt has been knocked out in the opening round of Australian Open qualifying.
Hewitt struggled with consistency throughout the match, committing 37 unforced errors against the 21-year-old Zheng, who kept his mistakes to just 14.
Early warning signs emerged in the opening game, which lasted eight minutes and saw Hewitt forced to save two break points to hold serve.
The match remained on serve until 3-3 in the first set, when Zheng took control by breaking Hewitt’s serve. The American maintained the momentum to close out the opening set 6-3 in 38 minutes.
Zheng started the second set in similar fashion, jumping to a 2-0 lead before Hewitt broke his opponent’s serve for the first time in the match.
However, the world No.734 – who finished the match with six double faults – couldn’t maintain rage, with Zheng breaking Hewitt’s serve in the next game.
The seesawing nature of the set continued until eighth game, where world No.174 Zheng again broke Hewitt’s before closing out the second set to advance to the second round of qualifiers.
“There’s not much more I could ask for – I’m super excited,” Zheng said.
“This is what you work for in these full stadiums. I still had a lot of fans cheering for me, but even if the fans were cheering against me, it’s still an unbelievable experience.
“He (Hewitt) retuned really well on the games that he broke me. He was doing a good job attacking my second serve … but I just kept calm and tried to take it one point at a time.”
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