The teenager long ago outgrew his legendary father, has been prominent at the Davis Cup, and has already sparked an off-court controversy with Nick Kyrgios. Yet Cruz Hewitt hasn’t yet made his formal Australian Open debut.

The son of Lleyton and Bec Hewitt is just 16, but at 1.88m already towers over Australia’s Davis Cup captain and two-time grand slam winner. And despite ranking in the 1200s and with just six ATP rankings points to his name (the world No 1, Jannik Sinner has 11,030), Hewitt has already become the talking point in the grand slam’s opening week.

Preparinhg for this week’s qualifier against the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, the Australian shared a practice hit with Sinner, the defending champion, at Melbourne Park on the weekend. Afterwards, he posted an image of the session alongside an older photo, depicting the pair from five years ago, when the Australian barely measured up to Sinner’s chest.

The post sparked a social media storm thanks to a comment from Kyrgios, who has been outspoken in his criticism of players to receive doping violations. Sinner tested positive for a banned substance last year but avoided a ban.

“Love ya Cruz but this is wild,” Kyrgios replied, before adding “cooked post” with a needle emoji. Following widespread backlash, Kyrgios sought to play down his intervention, saying on social media the comments were a joke.

It diverted attention from the highly anticipated debut of Hewitt, almost 30 years after his father qualified for the first of his 20 consecutive main draw appearances at Melbourne Park in 1997 as a 15-year-old.

Hewitt Jr has already played in the boy’s championship at Melbourne Park, though his tournament ended after just one match last year. That contest – in front of a large crowd on court three – provided a glimpse of his promise.

As he stands 10cm taller than his father, Hewitt’s serve has become a weapon. But he showed in last year’s foray in Melbourne he wasn’t afraid to turn to an all-round game tuned by his coach, the former ATP journeyman and clay court specialist Peter Luczak, who also works with Alex de Minaur.

The elder Hewitt, who has placed his son courtside at Davis Cup contests in the past year, gave reporters an insight into Cruz’s approach at the launch of the Australian Open in October. “One thing he’s never been shy of is playing on big courts or in front of people,” he said. “He takes it in his stride, it’s his journey, and it’s a very long journey.”

The 16-year-old said at the Newcombe medal awards he doesn’t mind comparisons with his father, who has helped secure training opportunities with some of the world’s best including at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca. Suggestions of favouritism serve as motivation for the teenager. “It is what it is, but I don’t really mind,” he said. “It just drives me to be better.”

Hewitt may be improving, yet few believe the Australian can overcome his experienced opponent. Basilashvili is ranked 208 but and has won five ATP titles and was in the top 20 as recently as 2022. The hard-hitting Georgian missed much of the past two years with arm injuries which required four surgeries. But victory in a challenger event in Seoul in November propelled him back up the rankings.

“All year I’ve been struggling, and to win the title, it means a lot,” he said in South Korea, admitting 2024 had been a “joke” and he had “serious confidence problems”. But the 32-year-old said he believed he was still capable of “top 50 tennis”.

Hewitt’s latest competitive outing was a qualifying defeat in Canberra by Brandon Holt, a 26-year-old American who is the son of the former women’s No 1 Tracey Austin. In November at Caloundra, he had another first-round loss to Hayden Jones, another emerging Australian junior.

Even if Hewitt can’t progress this year, Australian tennis has several sources of promise. The 18-year-old Jones is also in the qualifiers at Melbourne Park, and will meet the Dane August Holmgren. Hayden’s younger sister, the 16-year-old Emerson Jones – Australia’s first junior world No 1 girl since Jelena Dokic in 1998 – defeated the 37th-ranked Xinyu Wang in Adelaide on Monday.

While some names rise, others strive to survive. The former teenage star Bernard Tomic, now 32, will play the Slovakian Jozef Kovalik in the qualifiers as the Australian looks to continue a resurgence that has taken him to 213 in the world.

In the women’s draw, the Queenslander Kimberly Birrell will be hoping to continue her good form after reaching the quarter-finals in Brisbane. She is scheduled to meet Japan’s Sara Saito on Tuesday, although rain in Melbourne has pushed many of the qualifiers back.