The future of Australian tennis looks eerily similar to its past.

On a balmy Wednesday night at Ken Rosewall Arena, in front of a smattering of fans, Lleyton Hewitt and son Cruz played doubles together. Despite one being at the start of their career and the other well past the end of his, neither looked out of place.

It is a small sample size to go on – the match lasted just 46 minutes and 17 seconds – but we witnessed a special combination. On a court on which Lleyton has been singles champion four times, Team Hewitt won in their first doubles collaboration at the NSW Open, beating Hayden Jones and Pavle Markinov 6-1, 6-0.

Hewitt jnr is just 16 years old. By that age, the old man had already announced himself to the tennis world with a win over the great Andre Agassi. It’s unfair to co

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