Cruz Hewitt earns Australian Open qualifying wildcard for second straight year

The Australian Open qualifying wildcards were announced, featuring the appearance of Cruz Hewitt—son of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt—who will contest the qualifiers of the year's first Grand Slam for the second consecutive year. The 17-year-old debuted in 2025, being defeated in the opener by Nikoloz Basilashvili.

A curiosity was Hewitt's appearance in the past Australian Open qualifiers, considering that a few days later he joined the main draw of the Australian Open juniors, where he fell in the second round to the first seed Jan Kumstat—world No. 1 junior at that time.

The young Australian currently appears as world No. 735 in the ATP ranking, with just 41 points added. While he remains in competition mainly in junior events, he has had some forays into the top level, albeit without great results, while appearing as the Australian No. 29 in the ATP Ranking.

Precisely, wildcards seek to give opportunity to players who cannot access the tournament by ranking, and for the second consecutive year Tennis Australia decided to give an opportunity to Cruz Hewitt.

There were seveb wildcards announced for the Aussie Open qualifiers, with six local players joined to the draw seeking an opportunity to contest the main draw of the tournament. While the entry to the qualifiers closed at world ranking No. 30, there were still opportunities for some lower-ranked players to get an invitation to the qualies of the first major of the year.

Cruz Hewitt is one of the 6 Australians given the chance, in addition to being the youngest and lowest ranked, with an entry ranking of No. 759. The teenager will join his compatriots Li Tu (29 y/o, No. 258), Moerani Bouzige (26 y/o, No. 317), Philip Sekulic (22 y/o, No. 462), Edward Winter (21 y/o, No. 465) and Pavle Marinkov (19 y/o, No. 592).

Also joining is 18-year-old Henry Bernet, current world No. 511 and 2025 Australian Open junior champion—as well as former No. 1 of the category. The teenager has a handful of appearances at the ATP level, including a doubles appearance in Gstaad with Stan Wawrinka and a wildcard at Swiss Indoors—where he had 2025 Miami Open finalist Jakub Mensik on the ropes in a tight match (6-7, 7-6, 3-6).

The qualifiers include a list led by world No. 102 Vit Kopriva and will have a total of 64 players fighting for the 16 spots remaining in the main draw of the tournament. Some of the notable names include former world No. 4 Kei Nishikori, former Masters 1000 finalists Nikoloz Basilashvili and Nicolas Jarry, or young stars—recent participants of the Next Gen—such as Martin Landaluce, Nicolai Budkov Kjaer and Nishesh Basavareddy.

In addition, the absence of Nick Kyrgios among the qualifying wildcards stands out, which could open space for him to obtain a wildcard into the main draw, although with some spots yet to be revealed.