Australian tennis great John Newcombe has backed the decision to leave top-ranked locals Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic out of the nominations for the medal named in his honour.
He said the controversial pair had failed to meet the criteria for the Newcombe Medal, which includes on and off-court conduct as well as tournament success.
"It's not just about your ability to play tennis ... it's (also) about how you've conducted yourself during the year," Newcombe told reporters on Monday afternoon.
"It's not just dependant on your tennis results, it's a whole package of what's gone on and how you're represented yourself out there."
Dylan Alcott, Daria Gavrilova, John Millman, John Peers, Samantha Stosur and Jordan Thompson are in the running to win the seventh Newcombe Medal at a ceremony to be held in Melbourne on Monday night.
Kyrgios, currently ranked 13th in the world, won three titles in 2016 but ended the year with a suspension following his meltdown at the Shanghai Masters.
Tomic, the current world No.26, spent most of the year in the top 20 but, along with Kyrgios, didn't make himself available for Olympic selection.
He also drew widespread criticism for his antics in the first round at the Madrid Open when he attempted to return a Fabio Fognini serve with his racquet handle on match point.
Kyrgios gave an indication of his feelings on the snub via Twitter when he re-tweeted a link to an article, which was highly critical of the award's nomination process.
Despite backing the pair's omission, Newcombe is still a fan of both and believes 2017 holds big things for them.
"It's nothing at all against Bernie and Nick - they're nice, young blokes and they've done terrifically during the year," he said.
And Newcombe doesn't feel Kyrgios's suspension will hinder his preparation for the Australian Open in January.
"Nick seems to be the type of player that can find form really quickly," he said.
"I think Nick will come on fine as long as he's physically fit.
"I think he'll do really well in the Australian Open and all things being equal I wouldn't be surprised to see Nick in the top six by the end of 2017.
"Everbody in the world thinks the ability is there to do it."
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