Exits to cost Kyrgios, Barty

NICK Kyrgios and Ashleigh Barty face a battle to retain Australian Open seeding status after failing to capitalise on their big chance to go deep at Wimbledon.

Tennis Australia’s head of performance Wally Masur lamented the star duo’s “lost opportunity” after Kyrgios and Barty were unable to progress beyond the last 32 at The All England Club.

A surge to the second week would have earned Australia’s two big guns valuable rankings points ahead of the Grand Slam board’s intention to revert to 16 seeds instead of 32 at next year’s majors.

Barty departed London right on the cusp and with big points to defend in the back end of 2018, with Kyrgios sitting just outside the new planned seedings cut-off.

“Ultimately, it was a lost opportunity,” Masur said when asked to assess Australia’s Wimbledon showing.

“Ash is 16 in the world, Nick is 17. To get to the third round, is that successful? I would look upon that as more a lost opportunity. Ash is an exceptional talent, we know Nick is, and they don’t need to hear what my expectations for them are.

“But I see them both as top-10 players and, to do that, you’ve got to do well in the slams. The point differential going from 18 to seven in the world is massive and this is where you get your rankings points.”

While there were rumours a virus had afflicted Barty in her loss to Daria Kasatkina, Kyrgios and fellow Australian seed Daria Gavrilova both confessed to falling victim to nerves in their third-round defeats.

“But I would say everybody’s nervous when they play tennis. That is just a reality of the game,” Masur said.

“To me, they just didn’t seem comfortable or happy, which is unusual.”