Ash Barty is a shoo-in to assert a record-extending fifth Newcombe Medal after being amongst seven gamers shortlisted for Australian tennis’s player-of-the-year award.
But the retired Australian Open champion should fend off the strongest listing of finalists but after Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, three-time grand slam quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic and Wimbledon doubles champions Matt Ebden and Max Purcell have been additionally nominated.
Alex de Minaur and Storm Hunter (nee Sanders), the celebrities of Australia’s respective runs to the 2022 Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup finals, are the opposite nominees.
There will likely be no denying Barty, although, after the previous world No.1 famously turned the nation’s first singles Australian Open singles winner in 44 years with a hoodoo-busting triumph in January.
Victory over American Danielle Collins within the Melbourne Park remaining proved to be Barty’s final skilled match earlier than she dramatically give up tennis six weeks later, a month earlier than her twenty sixth birthday.
The three-time grand slam champion has already received the Newcombe Medal 4 occasions – 2017, 2018, 2019 and final 12 months – sharing the gong with wheelchair wizard Dylan Alcott.
Most different years Kyrgios would have received the award for a second time.
The 27-year-old loved a breakout season highlighted by his cost to the Wimbledon title match in July.
Kyrgios additionally reached the US Open quarter-finals and teamed with Thanasi Kokkinakis to win the Australian Open doubles crown.
Tomljanovic additionally loved a career-best 12 months, making the final eight at each Wimbledon and the US Open, the place she ended Serena Williams’ profession with a powerful third-round victory over the 23-times main winner.
But the 2022 honours belong to Barty, who will likely be appropriately recognised on Australian tennis’s night time of nights on the Palladium Crown on December 12.
