The excitement for the 2025 Australian Open is increasing with each passing day. Fans can’t wait for the first major tournament of the next season to start as less than a month is left for the tournament to begin. Amid this, there have been some interesting developments as the wildcards for the tournament’s qualifying draw have been announced. Among them is the name of Australian legend, Lleyton Hewitt’s son, Cruz.

The 16-year-old Cruz Hewitt is taking giant steps in the tennis world and made his Grand Slam debut at the junior Australian Open last year. Entering the tournament as a wildcard back then, he bowed out of the event in the first round. However, this year, he has an even better opportunity to make it big after receiving the wildcard entry into the qualifying draw of the first major tournament of the 2025 season.

Cruz Hewitt is hoping to replicate his father’s feat from almost 28 years back. Back in 1997, Lleyton Hewitt received a wildcard entry into the qualifying draw and won three back-to-back matches to make it to the main draw. As a result, he has big shoes to fill and would take inspiration from his father, who was a former World Number 1 and a 2-time Grand Slam champion.

Further, the other wildcards for the qualifying draw include last year’s junior champion Rei Sakamoto, as well as Australian hopefuls Marc Polmans, Matthew Dellavedova, Blake Ellis, Edward Winter, Dane Sweeny, Pavle Marinkov, and Hayden Jones. Similarly, the women’s side of the wildcards also boasts some interesting names, with Simona Halep set to make a comeback at the major event.

Meanwhile, Hewitt is following the path of his son closely as he takes a giant leap into the big league. The Australian legend sees a bright future in his son ahead.

Lleyton Hewitt is all praise for his son

The 43-year-old believes that his son Cruz has got what it takes to become the next big thing in the tennis world. With Cruz just being 16, he still has plenty of time to explore before he gets on the big stage regularly. Nonetheless, with the recent wildcard entry, it will be a golden opportunity for Cruz to announce his name on the big stage.

A few months back, Cruz won the praise of his father, who hadn’t imagined that his son would play in the Australian Open qualifiers. During an interview, Lleyton Hewitt stated, “Most likely he’ll be playing in the juniors, which is pretty awesome for him again. He got the experience of being there earlier this year and then (gets) to come back. And I think it’s every kid’s dream to play in a Grand Slam, but we’re very fortunate being in this country that we get it in our backyard as well. He’s obviously seen a lot of these players before him that have played, so it’s pretty exciting.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Cruz performs in the qualifiers with the support of his father right behind him. Can Lleyton Hewitt’s son make it to the Australian Open main draw? Let us know your views in the comments below.