Two-time winner Samantha Stosur headlines the shortlist for the 2012 Newcombe Medal, after Tennis Australia announced four nominees for the country's most outstanding player.
Stosur - who has won the first two medals since its inception in 2010 - and Casey Dellacqua made the list alongside veteran Lleyton Hewitt and number one Australian male Marinko Matosevic.
A notable absentee from the list is Australia's number two Bernard Tomic, who has endured an underwhelming year in 2012 after a breakout season last year.
Tomic was nominated in 2011 after reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals, but has lost five of his past seven matches on the ATP Tour to drop out of the top-50 rankings spots and finish the season with a 26-27 win-loss record - including a run of seven straight losses from the French Open to the London Olympics.
Despite finishing the year without a title, Stosur retained her spot in the top 10 courtesy of appearances in finals at Doha and Moscow, while also making the semi-finals at Roland Garros and the quarter-finals in her defence of the US Open.
She was a late call-up to the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul, but lost both her matches at the event.
Dellacqua's season highlight saw her reach the semi-finals in Dallas in August as a qualifier, as she did not drop a set on her way to the final four before losing to Jelena Jankovic.
She also won an ITF event in Fukuoka, where she was the second seed.
Matosevic started 2012 in brilliant style, reaching the final of Delray Beach as a qualifier - which saw him win seven straight matches before going down to Kevin Anderson in the decider.
He also made the semi-finals in Los Angeles, and reached the quarter-finals in both Eastbourne and Munich as a qualifier.
Former world number one Hewitt also did his best work early in 2012, reaching the round-of-16 at the Australian Open and taking a set off eventual champion Novak Djokovic at Melbourne Park.
He finished the year with a positive win-loss record of 16-14, which included his run to the final at Newport where he lost to John Isner.