Lleyton Hewitt and wife's brilliant act amid Alex de Minaur's 18-year Aus Open first
The Aussie tennis player has achieved a feat not seen since his mentor Hewitt in 2006.
It should be no surprise that Alex de Minaur is the first Australian in the top 10 of the ATP rankings since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006 considering the impact the Aussie tennis great has had on de Minaur's career. De Minaur will enter the Australian Open on Sunday as the World No.10 - the first time an Australian male has been in the top 10 since his mentor Hewitt 18 years ago.
De Minaur is one of 10 Australian players ranked inside the top 112 of men's tennis - the first time we've enjoyed such success since eight players finished 1998 inside the top 100. And the Australian male contingent can put a lot of that success down to Davis Cup captain Hewitt.
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In his time in charge of Australian men's tennis, Hewitt has overseen a dramatic shift that has resulted in numerous players rising to their potential. De Minaur is the poster child of the Hewitt era, and it should come as no surprise considering the time and effort the two-time grand slam champion has placed into building de Minaur into the success he is today.
Hewitt has acted as de Minaur's mentor and unofficial coach ever since he broke into professional tennis. He even took de Minaur into his family home alongside wife Bec and their three kids when 'the Demon' didn't have anywhere to live.
"It was great to just have that inside advice all the time and get his thoughts on everything," de Minaur said at the time. "I stayed with him in Sydney and also at his place in Melbourne. At the French Open last year in the juniors, he came out and we had a nice chat and told me that he would be very supportive of everything I needed.
"It's been unbelievable the amount of stuff he's done for me. I couldn't be more grateful. I spent time with his family and we went out with the family for dinner together ... it was nice."
Alex de Minaur's bond with Lleyton Hewitt and family
De Minaur's bond with the Hewitt family is so strong that he even attended the Newcombe Medal ceremony with Lleyton, Bec and their son Cruz in 2018. And they're still very close, with de Minaur inviting Cruz to join him in a practice session at Melbourne Park this week.
Bec Hewitt was also spotted in attendance during de Minaur's matches at the United Cup last week. She watched on as the 26-year-old scored victories over three top-10 opponents - Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev and World No.1 Novak Djokovic.
Hewitt was famously accused by Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic of showing favouritism to the likes of de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin in 2019 - comments that look very foolish now considering Tomic is nowhere to be seen and de Minaur is ranked higher than Kyrgios ever has been. And if de Minaur keeps up his staggering form, he's likely to go further than Kyrgios and Tomic have ever been at the Australian Open.
He'll have to get through former World No.3 Milos Raonic in the first round, but on current form the Aussie should handle the big-hitting Canadian. "It has been a goal of mine for a while to make the deep end of the slams and the bigger tournaments," de Minaur said before Thursday's draw.
"Hey, why not this Australian Open coming up? I will be ready to go against whoever I've got to play. It's no secret that every single person in the draw is a quality player, so ultimately whoever I draw it's going to be a tough match, and there's tough matches all around."
Rankings of Australian male tennis players (as of January 12):
10. Alex de Minaur
43. Alexei Popyrin
45. Max Purcell
47. Jordan Thompson
63. Aleksander Vukic
68. Thanasi Kokkinakis
70. Rinky Hijikata
71. Christopher O'Connell
96. James Duckworth
112. Jason Kubler
with AAP
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