Barty and Kyrgios lead nominees for Newcombe Medal

Alex de Minaur and Ajla Tomljanovic also nominated for the award

Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios nominated for the 2022 Newcombe Medal Image Credit: Antoine Couvercelle/ AI/ Reuters/ Tennis Majors/ Panoramic

Haresh Ramchandani

December 2, 2022

Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios lead the nominees for the 2022 Newcombe Medal. The two were named alongside Alex de Minaur, Matt Ebden, Storm Hunter (nee Sanders), Max Purcell and Ajla Tomljanovic for the award, the highest individual honour in Australian tennis.

Barty won the Australian Open in January, adding to the Wimbledon title she won in July 2021 and the French Open in 2019, and was the world’s top-ranked player when she stunned the tennis world with her shock retirement announcement in March. She is a four-time winner of the Newcombe Medal in the past.

Kyrgios won the Australian Open men’s doubles title in January with Thanasi Kokkinakis and also reached the singles final at Wimbledon to compile his best season on the tour. The 27-year-old, who did not earn any points for his runner-up finish at Wimbledon due to the tournament’s decision to bar Russian and Belarusian players, finished the year ranked No 22 in the world in singles and No 13 in doubles.

Kyrgios ended the season with a 37-10 win-loss ratio in singles, the best behind Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Ebden and Purcell won the Wimbledon doubles title in July and also reached the final of the Australian Open in January. Ebden, himself, also reached the Wimbledon mixed doubles final.

De Minaur finished the year ranked No 24 in singles, winning the title in Atlanta, reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and also helped Australia reach the final of the Davis Cup.

Tomlajnovic reached her second consecutive Wimbleodn quarter-final and then reached her first US Open quarter-final, beating Serena Williams on the way. Huner (Sanders) won three doubles titles, including the WTA 1000 in Guadalajara, and also won the US Open mixed doubles title, to finish the season ranked No 10 in the world.

The awards will be handed out at the Palladium Crown on December 12.

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