Alex de Minaur remembers the photo. Cruz Hewitt in a suit, eight or nine years old, both of them on the red carpet the night de Minaur won the Newcombe Medal — Australian tennis's biggest annual individual honor. That photo, and others like it, started recirculating on social media this week once the matchup was set. On Thursday, the two Australians finally played it out for the first time, as pros, with De Minaur beating the 17-year-old Hewitt 6-2, 6-3 to reach the Mubadala DC Open quarterfinals.
"I do remember when we went to Newcombe Medal together, that night when he won the Newcombe Medal, going on the carpet together," Hewitt said afterward. "I think he might have been staying at my house at the time, so I think we were getting ready together." De Minaur had the same memory from the other side. "I think there's a photo of both of us at the Newcombe Medal both in suits," he said. "Just to look back on those types of photos and then to look across the court today and see that I'm playing him, it's a pretty fun feeling."
Hewitt, the son of Hall of Famer Lleyton Hewitt, reached this round on the strength of his first-ever ATP Tour win earlier in the week — a result that's already moved his ranking roughly 240 spots. De Minaur, the tournament's top seed, has known Hewitt for the better part of a decade, hitting with him regularly, including multiple times in Washington before the tournament, and staying at Lleyton's house more times than he can count.
Both said the buildup made the match harder to treat like any other. "It definitely wasn't easy, right, going into the match just, as I said, the lead-up, seeing all the photos, all the memories, thinking of all the time we spent together," de Minaur said. "I couldn't help but ultimately be excited for it."
On court, de Minaur jumped out to an early lead — climbing to 5-0 in the first set quick — before the teenager settled in. "I started the match trying to be as solid as I could, tried to put as much pressure as I could on him because I knew it probably wouldn't be easy starting the match playing free," De Minaur said. "He loosened up at the very end, and then it became a real battle. I had to come out with some big serves in some key moments to get it over the line."
Hewitt credited the adjustment to simply settling into his own game. "I just served a little better towards the end I think, which helped me, and I started making more balls as well. All credit to him. He played an amazing match."
Both players said shaking hands at the net afterward stuck with them. "I probably wasn't ready to play him this week. I didn't expect that," de Minaur said. "I knew at some stage we were going to play each other. I wasn't expecting it this week, but I'm glad it happened. I'm looking forward to the next ones."
De Minaur told Hewitt as much in the handshake, a line Hewitt said "gets me excited": that the two of them could be playing each other for the next ten years. De Minaur was similarly effusive about Lleyton's role in Hewitt's development. "Lleyton has been an incredible help over my whole career, and I'm glad to see him be there with Cruz. I think he's got a bright future ahead."
For Hewitt, the week isn't a launching pad to a big tournament right away — he's slated to play two ITF Futures events in Memphis and Michigan over the next few weeks, building toward a longer-term goal of a wild card into the Australian Open main draw. For de Minaur, the road gets harder: he plays Brandon Nakashima next, who has won two of their three career meetings and is playing well on the same hard courts. "I'm expecting a battle," de Minaur said.
De Minaur said he saw Hewitt and his father briefly in the gym after the match, in what he described as an adjustment period for everyone involved. "I think all of us as a collective were kind of, like, didn't really know how to kind of act," de Minaur said, "because it's the first time we've been in that position." It might not be the last.