It’s all set to be a battle of generations at the Citi DC Open in Washington as top seed and defending champion, Alex de Minaur, gears up to face 17-year-old Cruz Hewitt in the second round. However, this match has an added significance that comes from the close bond that De Minaur shares with the Hewitt family.

“It’s going to be a weird situation, right? I’ve seen Cruz grow up for the last ten years”, said De Minaur in the Citi Open press conference. “I’ve seen him become the man that he is right now. I’ve hit with him countless times. He’s earned his way to where he is right now. He’s been playing some incredible tennis and “big boy” tennis. I’m going to have to be ready and hopefully make his life as difficult as I can make it.”

The close bond between De Minaur and the Hewitt family had its roots in De Minaur’s admiration for Cruz’s father, former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. Even though the two-time Major champion had never taken up the official title of a coach in De Minaur’s team, he has been a lifelong mentor for the current World No.5, regularly being at his player’s box during Slams.

The torch of mentorship was passed down when De Minaur took on young Cruz under his wing, with the duo often having practice sessions, and the teenager was often a warm-up partner for De Minaur, even at the Slams. During his junior Wimbledon campaign a few weeks ago, the 17-year-old talked about how the veteran De Minaur has been a guiding force for him on the Tour, and the practice sessions with a top-ranked player gave him brief insights about the technicalities of the sport.

Now with the two Aussies set for a match in DC, it will be revealed if Hewitt has learned a trick or two from his mentor. The youngster is full of confidence, which was on show when he won his first-round match against Marcos Giron, which was his maiden Tour-level win. On the other hand, De Minaur will have one less day to recover from his first-round win over Stefanos Tsitsipas, which got postponed due to rain. However, the top seed put together a spirited display against the Greek, who had a 12-1 head-to-head against him before the match.

De Minaur’s words at the press conference were proof that the veteran was in no mood of underestimating his younger compatriot, but the Australian will be hoping to go deep in the event to revive what has been a mixed season for him so far.

Alex De Minaur Has Had a Mixed Season in 2026 So Far

De Minaur started strong this season, having a decent United Cup campaign and reaching the quarterfinal of the Australian Open, where he went down to the eventual champion, Carlos Alcaraz. He then won the title in Rotterdam, a special moment for him, as he had come second to the likes of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the same event in the previous two seasons.

However, the clay-court season saw him suffer from a series of losses, leading up to a third-round loss at the French Open against Jakub Mensik, despite the Czech losing the first set 6-0. The Australian had a brief revival on grass as he reached the final of the Libema Open, but had a poor showing against Flavio Cobolli in the fourth round of Wimbledon.

The telling sign came after the Wimbledon loss, where De Minaur openly admitted being far behind the leading pack in men’s tennis despite being ranked No.5 in the world. Given Carlos Alcaraz’s absence in the last two Majors, the Australian will have seen the losses as missed opportunities where he could have made deep runs at Majors. De Minaur has reached the quarterfinals at all Majors, but that seems to be the Australian’s ceiling, as he has come up short against the top-seeded players more often than not, with him yet to win a match against either Sinner or Alcaraz.

However, De Minaur fans will hope that his recent marriage to long-time partner Katie Boulter will have given the Australian the mental reset he needed, and he can go on a couple of deep runs at the North American hard court swing.