World No.1s Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep have been confirmed as the top seeds for Australian Open 2018 on Thursday afternoon.
Nadal, the Australian Open 2009 champion, heads the men’s seedings ahead of 2017 Melbourne Park victor Roger Federer, with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov the third seed.
Six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who missed the second half of 2017 with an elbow injury, is seeded 14th, while Nick Kyrgios (17th) is the highest-seeded Australian male in the draw.
On the women’s side, Halep will look to reverse a wretched recent record in Australia as the event’s top seed; the Romanian has lost in the first round in Melbourne for the past two years, and has never advanced further than the quarterfinals in Australia.
American Venus Williams, last year’s runner-up to sister Serena, is the fifth seed, while Ash Barty (18) is the top-seeded Australian after her breakout 2017 campaign.
The draw for Australian Open 2018 takes place at 7pm AEDT on Thursday 11 January.
Seeds: Men’s singles
1 Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2 Roger Federer (SUI)
3 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
4 Alexander Zverev (GER)
5 Dominic Thiem (AUT)
6 Marin Cilic (CRO)
7 David Goffin (BEL)
8 Jack Sock (USA)
9 Stan Wawrinka (SUI)
10 Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP)
11 Kevin Anderson (RSA)
12 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
13 Sam Querrey (USA)
14 Novak Djokovic (SRB)
15 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
16 John Isner (USA)
17 Nick Kyrgios (AUS)
18 Lucas Pouille (FRA)
19 Tomas Berdych (CZE)
20 Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP)
21 Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP)
22 Milos Raonic (CAN)
23 Gilles Muller (LUX)
24 Diego Schwartzman (ARG)
25 Fabio Fognini (ITA)
26 Adrian Mannarino (FRA)
27 Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)
28 Damir Dzumhur (BIH)
29 Richard Gasquet (FRA)
30 Andrey Rublev (RUS)
31 Pablo Cuevas (URU)
32 Mischa Zverev (GER)
Seeds: Women’s singles
1 Simona Halep (ROU)
2 Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
3 Garbine Muguruza (ESP)
4 Elina Svitolina (UKR)
5 Venus Williams (USA)
6 Karolina Pliskova (CZE)
7 Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)
8 Caroline Garcia (FRA)
9 Johanna Konta (GBR)
10 CoCo Vandeweghe (USA)
11 Kristina Mladenovic (FRA)
12 Julia Goerges (GER)
13 Sloane Stephens (USA)
14 Anastasija Sevastova (LAT)
15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
16 Elena Vesnina (RUS)
17 Madison Keys (USA)
18 Ashleigh Barty (AUS)
19 Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK)
20 Barbora Strycova (CZE)
21 Angelique Kerber (GER)
22 Daria Kasatkina (RUS)
23 Daria Gavrilova (AUS)
24 Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)
25 Shuai Peng (CHN)
26 Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
27 Petra Kvitova (CZE)
28 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO)
29 Lucie Safarova (CZE)
30 Kiki Bertens (NED)
31 Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)
32 Anett Kontaveit (EST)