Cruz Hewitt reached the boys Wimbledon final on Friday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 11 seed Thijs Boogaard, pushing through a tight second set before closing out the match in straight sets. The unseeded Australian will play Jordan Lee in Sunday's final.
The result is the latest step in a week that has put Hewitt back in a junior Grand Slam draw for the first time this year. He had last competed in a junior event at the US Open in September, and his run on the grass comes after he looked comfortable on the surface in a semifinal and a final in M15s in Australia this spring.
Hewitt, the son of 2002 Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt, said the match turned when he let Boogaard back in after leading 3-1 in the second set. He described the break as a loose game, then said he quickly reset mentally, broke straight back and kept the momentum from shifting. From there, he held his serve and put pressure on Boogaard's service games until the finish.
That matters because the numbers around the draw make his progress harder to dismiss. Hewitt came into the week with the second best ATP ranking in the boys field at 606, behind Boogaard's 525, which made the semifinal a test against one of the higher-rated players in the event rather than a surprise against a lower-ranked opponent. It also underlined how far he has come in his first junior tournament of the year.
Hewitt said his father has been a steady presence rather than a sideline coach. Wayne Arthurs is his main coach, he said, but Lleyton Hewitt is still in his corner offering positive support, and that is something he uses during matches. Every time he looks over, he said, his father is showing positivity, and that helps lift him as well.
The day also set up a final with a different kind of pressure. Jordan Lee beat unseeded Vincent Reisach 6-3, 6-2 to join Hewitt in Sunday’s final, leaving two players who arrived at Wimbledon from different sides of the draw but now meet with a junior title at stake. For Hewitt, the next step is no longer about the family name or the ranking line next to it. It is about whether he can finish the week as champion.
