Ash Barty is a shoo-in to claim a record-extending fifth Newcombe Medal after being among seven players shortlisted for Australian tennis's player-of-the-year award.
But the retired Australian Open champion will have to fend off the strongest list of finalists yet after Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, three-time grand slam quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic and Wimbledon doubles champions Matt Ebden and Max Purcell were also nominated.
Alex de Minaur and Storm Hunter (nee Sanders), the stars of Australia's respective runs to the 2022 Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup finals, are the other nominees.
There will be no denying Barty, though, after the former world No.1 famously became the country's first singles Australian Open singles winner in 44 years with a hoodoo-busting triumph in January.
Victory over American Danielle Collins in the Melbourne Park final proved to be Barty's last professional match before she dramatically quit tennis six weeks later, a month before her 26th birthday.
The three-time grand slam champion has already won the Newcombe Medal four times - 2017, 2018, 2019 and last year - sharing the gong with wheelchair wizard Dylan Alcott.
Most other years Kyrgios would have won the award for a second time.
The 27-year-old enjoyed a breakout season highlighted by his charge to the Wimbledon title match in July.
Kyrgios also reached the US Open quarter-finals and teamed with Thanasi Kokkinakis to win the Australian Open doubles crown.
Tomljanovic also enjoyed a career-best year, making the last eight at both Wimbledon and the US Open, where she ended Serena Williams' career with a magnificent third-round victory over the 23-times major winner.
But the 2022 honours belong to Barty, who will be appropriately recognised on Australian tennis's night of nights at the Palladium Crown on December 12.
