Cruz Hewitt earned his first ATP tour win of his career after he edged out Marcos Giron in the opening round in Washington D.C.
The 17 year-old qualified for the tournament in the American capital with a couple of lucky retirements from his opponents but there was no such thing in his opening round match.
A 6-3 6-4 win over the experienced Marcos Giron saw Hewitt reach the second round and go one step closer in following in his father’s footsteps by winning his first ever ATP tour match.
Recently Hewitt reached the Boys singles final at Wimbledon and is continuing to show the potential he has in his game.
After the match Hewitt admitted it’s ‘surreal’ moment for him in his career, “It’s pretty surreal to win here,” Hewitt told the ATP website.
“Obviously 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’s very special.”
A big showdown will await Hewitt in the second round as he takes on either top seed Alex De Minaur or Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Australian admitted it would be a cool moment if he did take on De Minaur in the American capital, “Obviously if I play Alex, that would be a dream to share the court with him,” Hewitt explained.
“He’s like my older brother. I’ve known him basically my whole life. He’s stayed with us. We have Christmas together, also. He’s taught me so much, I think that would be a pretty cool memory for us.”
In other results there was a shock defeat for Tommy Paul as the American lost to Kamil Majchrzak and failed to set up a second round showdown with Taylor Fritz.
Meanwhile, Ben Shelton survived an opening round scare in his Washington opener as he lost to Martin Damm 6-4 4-6 6-4.
