ATP Tour

De Minaur stops 17-year-old Cruz Hewitt, surges into Washington QFs

Alex de Minaur has watched Cruz Hewitt's development from close range over the past decade, but there was little sentiment when the pair met for the first time on Thursday at the Mubadala DC Open in Washington.

The top seed and defending champion produced a clinical display to defeat the 17-year-old Hewitt — son of former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt — 6-2, 6-3 and return to the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 event. After their 61-minute clash, De Minaur shared a warm embrace with Hewitt at the net as Lleyton looked on from the stands at Stadium Court.

"It was definitely weird," De Minaur said in his on-court interview. "I knew I was going to play him on the Tour some day, but I didn't actually expect it to be this week. It was an amazing feeling. Even all the lead up, seeing all the incredible pictures that we have together and how we've both grown up. I'm glad I managed to get through, but I'm sure we're going to have many battles in the years to come."

De Minaur dug deep to overcome Stefanos Tsitsipas in his opener on Wednesday, earning just his second win in 14 Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings with the Greek. Against Hewitt, however, the 27-year-old was far more efficient, charging to the net with authority and displaying great hands en route to improving to 29-14 on the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.

Hewitt has grown up around De Minaur, who has become a fixture of the Australia’s Davis Cup and United Cup teams under the captaincy of Hewitt's father, Lleyton. After coming through qualifying to defeat Marcos Giron on his debut, Cruz has jumped 252 spots to No. 360 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

De Minaur is this week competing for the first time since marrying WTA star Katie Boulter earlier this month. The World No. 6 and two-time Nitto ATP Finals competitor will next face American Brandon Nakashima, who earlier upset seventh seed Jakub Mensik 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 to reach his second consecutive Washington quarter-final.

Nakashima holds a 2-1 advantage in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series, including a quarter-final victory at Queen's Club in June. De Minaur's lone win against the American also came at the quarter-final stage in Washington last year before he went on to lift the title.