Nick Kyrgios can learn from Barty’s stunning Wimbledon win that substance will beat a sideshow any day

Last year she handed a premiership trophy to her beloved Richmond Tigers at the Gabba – will a greater honour await her there in 11 years’ time?

Imagine if Ash Barty played for another 11 years and finished her career at the Brisbane Olympics at age 36.

It’s a big stretch, but you never know. Serena and Roger are still chugging along at 39.

Imagine if she played until sometime near the Olympics, won a couple more Grand Slams and lit the flame at the opening ceremony at the Gabba in the same place she presented the AFL Trophy to her beloved Richmond Tigers last year.

Now we’re talking serious possibility.

This fun and provocative thought is gaining traction on social media and so it should because while Brisbane haven’t officially got the Games and they are 11 years away a city does not toss up popular global sports heroes very often.

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Ash Barty ticks all the boxes to light the cauldron at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

As far as cauldron lighters go it’s a ridiculously small field with no specific qualifications except that you have to be truly special in some way.

A hero that makes your Games look good just by being attached to them as opposed to the other way around.

Even if she never hits another tennis ball Barty is firmly in contention for the cauldron lighting role if Brisbane gets the Games as the athlete who represents the best virtues of the Games and sport itself.

Unassuming. Gifted. Modest, polite and devilishly hard to beat. A role model for Indigenous athletes.

It is a rare and almost irresistible amalgam of qualities. And universally popular. Other candidates will emerge before the Games as potential cauldron lighters but they’d need to be good to pip Barty, especially when you think of the honours that may lay ahead of her.

The contrast between Barty and Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon spotlighted the contrast between sideshows and substance, fibre and flightiness.

Nick Kyrgios needs to take the next step from Grand Slam sideshow to winner. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

While Kyrgios talks about himself being a part-timer player who burns brightly but briefly at Grand Slams, Barty is the polar contrast, the consummate professional who travels with a large team to address every possible nuance that will take her to the top of the world.

Barty’s success should be a spur to Kyrgios.

He can have all the social media likes in the world and the rich sponsorship dollars that come with being cutting edge but nothing beats true Grand Slam gravitas.

In the first week of Grand Slams quirky sideshows have their place but nothing shakes the publicity tree more than actually winning the thing. And he can win things when Federer, Nadal and Djokovic fade.

It’s the heavy duty Saturdays and Sundays of week two when true reputations are forged.

Barty is one year younger than 26-year-old Kyrgios but he still has the time to make his mark.

In 2014, when Kyrgios made the Wimbledon quarterfinals as a 19-year-old, Barty, with a singles rankings in the 200s, was a month away from taking a two-year break from the game.

Since then she has reassessed her life, stormed to the No. 1 ranking in the world, won two Grand Slams and will live happily ever after no matter what happens now. Kyrgios has never bettered that finish at a Grand Slam but he still has the time to do so.