Playing true to their rankings, defending champion Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek will be the top seeds at the Australian Open in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year which begins Sunday at Melbourne Park.
The men's seedings mirror the ATP rankings as of Wednesday from Nos. 1-32, with 24-time major winner Djokovic followed by Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, the only player to beat him a Grand Slam event in 2023.
The women's seedings followed the WTA rankings from Nos. 1-8, then Barbora Krejcikova is promoted to No. 9 at Melbourne Park because of the injury enforced absence of her fellow Czech Karolina Muchova, the French Open finalist last year.
Muchova hasn't played since losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff in the U.S. Open semifinals last September.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is pregnant and skipping the year's first major and last year's U.S. Open semifinalist Madison Keys has an injured shoulder, taking the players ranked 17th and 18th out of the equation for Australia.
The seedings mean that players in the top 32 avoid each other in the early rounds when the brackets are determined for the major tournaments. The top two seeded players cannot meet before the final.
Here is a list of the seedings:
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Men
1. Novak Djokovic
2. Carlos Alcaraz
3. Daniil Medvedev
4. Jannik Sinner
5. Andrey Rublev
6. Alexander Zverev
7. Stefanos Tsitsipas
8. Holger Rune
9. Hubert Hurkacz
10. Alex de Minaur
11. Casper Ruud
12. Taylor Fritz
13. Grigor Dimitrov
14. Tommy Paul
15. Karen Khachanov
16. Ben Shelton
17. Frances Tiafoe
18. Nicholas Jarry
19. Cameron Norrie
20. Adrian Mannarino
21. Ugo Humbert
22. Francisco Cerundolo
23. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
24. Jan-Lennard Struff
25. Lorenzo Musetti
26. Sebastian Baez
27. Felix Auger-Aliassime
28. Tallon Griekspoor
29. Sebastian Korda
30. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
31. Alexander Bublik
32. Jiri Lehecka
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Women
1. Iga Swiatek
2. Aryna Sabalenka
3. Elena Rybakina
4. Coco Gauff
5. Jessica Pegula
6. Ons Jabeur
7. Marketa Vondrousova
8. Maria Sakkari
9. Barbora Krejcikova
10. Beatriz Haddad Maia
11. Jelena Ostapenko
12. Zheng Qinwen
13. Liudmila Samsonova
14. Daria Kasatkina
15. Veronika Kudermetova
16. Caroline Garcia
17. Ekaterina Alexandrova
18. Victoria Azarenka
19. Elina Svitolina
20. Magda Linette
21. Donna Vekic
22. Sorana Cirstea
23. Anastasia Potapova
24. Anhelina Kalinina
25. Elise Mertens
26.Jasmine Paolini
27. Emma Navarro
28. Lesia Tsurenko
29, Zhu Lin
30. Wang Xinyu
31. Marie Bouzkova
32. Leylah Fernandez
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
