Packed crowd watches on as Cruz Hewitt loses in Australian Open debut

Cruz Hewitt has crashed out of Australian Open qualifying with a straight-sets loss to Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old was bidding to become the youngest player to make the main draw since his father Lleyton qualified for the 1997 tournament a month shy of his 16th birthday.

Watched by his father and former actress mother Bec in the stands, Hewitt showed flashes of enormous potential, but was ultimately outclassed by 32-year-old Basilashvili in a 6-1 6-4 result.

Basilashvili, who is a former top-20 player, won the first five games of the match before Hewitt finally got on the board to avoid the dreaded first-set bagel and give the packed crowd something to cheer about.

However, it only delayed the inevitable, with Basilashvili quickly wrapping up the first set.

The second set was much closer with Hewitt showcasing some of his big hitting.

He went down an early break in the second but quickly broke back and brought out the trademark fist pump that his dad used so often.

Despite matching it at times with his more fancied opponent, Hewitt was broken again in the fifth game and couldn’t get the set back on serve.

He fought all the way to the end, but was eventually beaten in 73 minutes.

Hewitt will now turn his attentions to the junior tournament, hoping to do better than his first-round exit last year.

Basilashvili delivered a brilliant quote about his opponent after the match.

“When I was 16, I would have pooped my pants to be playing quallies,” he said.

Hewitt wasn’t the only high-profile Aussie to lose on Tuesday with Bernard Tomic also crashing out.