Cruz Hewitt snaps at famous dad during Wimbledon boys’ singles loss

Cruz Hewitt has snapped in frustration at his famous father during his second-round boys’ singles defeat at Wimbledon.

The 16-year-old son of Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt was outclassed by Finland’s No.11 seed Oskari Paldanius 6-3, 6-0 on Tuesday morning (AEST).

Paldanius then capped his win by appearing to mock Cruz’s dad’s famous ‘c’mon’ celebration when the match was over, making the bitter pill of defeat even harder to swallow.

Earlier, Cruz lost his temper at his father and support team when the match started slipping away.

Lleyton was trying to coach his son from the sidelines when Cruz, in his frustration, accused him of “acting for the cameras”.

The teenager then snapped again when Lleyton offered another piece of advice.

“I tried that!” Cruz could be heard responding with.

Trying to calm him down during the disastrous second set, Cruz’s team tried to tell him “everything is fine”, to which he responded: ‘It’s not fine — it’s nearly 4-0!”

Hewitt had looked imperious in his first-round win over Russia’s Savva Rybkin on Sunday, a performance which predictably drew comparisons to his father.

“Same backwards cap, same Yonex racket, same Nike heritage polo, same attitude. A carbon copy,” tennis commentator Bastien Fachan said.

Another Aussie who has drawn comparisons to Lleyton Hewitt over his career is Alex de Minaur, who couldn’t get past the colossal Novak Djokovic in the fourth round of the men’s singles.

It means the grasscourt season is over for him and his focus is moving to hardcourts, the US Open, and end-of-year ATP Finals.

In particular the Australian No.1 knows he needs to pick up points to climb the rankings, without fixating on climbing the rankings, which he diagnosed as one of the causes of the burnout he felt after the French Open.

De Minaur assessed his grass campaign “as a tad disappointing”, which is an understatement after a first round exit at Queen’s and a fourth round loss to Djokovic at Wimbledon. He won three matches, lost two.

Last year he won eight out of nine, winning the title at s’Hertogenbosch, which he declined to defend this year because he felt the need for a break after Roland Garros, and reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals before being forced to quit through injury.

Being drawn against seven-time winner Djokovic was unlucky, but only up to a point as his 11th-seeding left him vulnerable.

“I knew going into this tournament that there was a high chance I would be in a position like this,” he said.

“I didn’t take care of business pre-Wimbledon to guarantee myself a top-eight seed and be somewhat protected until the quarters. I had to play Novak fourth round.

“It’s not the best of draws,” he added ruefully.

De Minaur reached the last eight in New York last year but did not play any warm-up events due to the hip injury suffered at Wimbledon, so hopes to climb the rankings. Post-Wimbledon he will be down to 12th in the world, 10th in the ATP 2025 standings, a place lower in both in the unlikely event of Flavio Cobolli winning the Wimbledon title.

The top eight in the ATP rankings make November’s Finals in Turin.

“The whole back end of the year I’ve got very little to defend,” he said. “It’s opportunity after opportunity for me.

“I’m hoping that the little bit of time off before (Wimbledon), a bit of time off after, I will put myself in a good position to finish the year strongly.”

- With AAP