Cruz Hewitt's nod to dad while giving world No.1 junior huge scare

MELBOURNE: Cruz Hewitt's Australian Open campaign is over.

The 16-year-old showed all the fighting qualities of his famous father to force a second set tiebreak before falling 6-3, 7-6 to world No.1 Jan Kumstat on Court 3.

The much taller and more powerful Kumstat won the tiebreak 9-7 after Hewitt forced a set point but couldn't capitalise in the junior boys' second round match.

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He did, however, bring Lleyton to his feet with three sizzling forehand winners in the tiebreak to give the 18-year-old Czech a real scare.

But Kumstat cranked his serve up to a whopping 208km/h to progress to the third round.

The resemblances were plentiful and obvious.

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Dad's trademark fist pump and 'C'mon!' battle cry - and a backhand that at times got on top of Kumstat's high kicking second serve.

Lleyton and Bec watched their son from different vantage points of the well populated arena, full of kids eager to catch a glimpse of Hewitt 2.0

After Cruz had his serve broken he hit a ball to the side wall in front of dad in frustration.

Son vented and dad took an intense swig of what looked to be an electrolyte heavy drink, staying hydrated ahead of his Alex de Minaur night commentary duties for Nine.

Give him time but the kid clearly has the game to match the name and he brought the arena alive with one gorgeous drop shot that gave the towering Czech zero chance of reaching.

"Classy shot," a father said to his son near the media seating. "Classy shot," the son agreed.

The future is clearly bright, after Todd Woodbridge had staunchly defended the Australian Open's decision to hand Hewitt a wildcard into the senior qualifying draw.

Hewitt was one of four Aussies to receive a men's qualifying wildcard, along with Bernard Tomic, Alex Bolt and Jason Kubler.

He missed out on the main draw but won his opening junior boys' clash 6-3, 6-3 against Kim Moobeen of Korea.

"Cruz is in these positions because he is a very, very good, talented young player and one of our best here in Australia," doubles icon Woodbridge said on Nine's coverage while sitting next to Lleyton.

"He deserves every opportunity that he's got to be there. So some people would like to say other(wise), I know you (Lleyton) have to deal with that and you shouldn't have to, so I am just putting it out there - he deserves to be there."

Cruz is ranked 1263 in the world and is the 60th ranked junior.

"It's a long journey but I was excited to watch him play out there," Lleyton said.

"For Cruz to be around these guys, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alex de Minaur - he is always around as well.

"Unbelievable role models for him to see how they prepare, going through all the right steps leading into these big matches, but such nice guys as well.

"He is going well at the moment and it makes me pretty excited when I see him hit with some of these absolute world class players and the best guys going around and he can actually give them a good enough hit out there.

"I get nervous watching his matches, in practice it's not too bad because I know what he's capable of.

"It's like watching Davis Cup matches, I much prefer to be out there in control of what I'm doing."