Nadal, Halep top seeds at Australian Open

World No 1 and 2009 champ Rafael Nadal is top seed for the Australian Open that commences at Melbourne Park on Monday, January 15.

He leads the men’s seedings ahead of defending champ Roger Federer, with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov seeded third.

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.

Women’s World No 1, Halep, who lost in the first round last year and has never played the quarter-final is top seed.

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.

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)

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)