No sweet 16 for Ash

ASH Barty will finish her remarkable season ranked No.17 and is likely to just miss out on an Australian Open top-16 seeding which would have protected her from the top-eight women in its first three rounds.

Barty’s semi-final loss in the WTA Elite Trophy in China on and German Julia Goerges’ win lifted Goerges to No.16 in live rankings, the spot Barty had held for 72 hours.

Barty, though, is the highest-ranked Australian player of either gender, improving an incredible 254 ranking places over the course of the year.