By Ros Satar, in Melbourne
- The Australian Open seedings were set with last year’s finalists Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal seeded to clash once more in the final
- Novak Djokovic has a tough battle having dropped down the rankings
- We break down who is where and who they could face at this year’s Australian Open
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – With last year’s finalists Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal seeded to clash once more, and all change at the top on the Women’s side, we break down who goes where.
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The first Slam of the year with a few key names missing, but from Monday it all comes down to where the seeds may fall.
[1] |
Rafael Nadal |
Simona Halep |
Opposite from the No. 2 seeds
Will face players seeded 25-32 in the third round, 13-16 in the fourth round and 5-8 in the quarter-finals
[2] |
Roger Federer |
Caroline Wozniacki |
Occupies the bottom place in the draw, opposite from the World No. 1.
Will face players seeded 25-32 in the third round, 13-16 in the fourth round and 5-8 in the quarter-finals.
[3] | Grigor Dimitrov | Garbiñe Muguruza |
[4] | Alexander Zverev | Elina Svitolina |
Will face players seeded 25-32 in the third round, 13-16 in the fourth round and 5-8 in the quarter-finals.
[5] | Dominic Thiem | Venus Williams |
[6] | Marin Cilic | Karolina Pliskova |
[7] | David Goffin | Jelena Ostapenko |
[8] | Jack Sock | Caroline Garcia |
Will face players seeded 25-32 in the third round, 9-12 in the fourth round and 1-4 in the quarter-finals
[9] | Stan Wawrinka | Johanna Konta |
[10] | Pablo Carreno Busta | Coco Vandeweghe |
[11] | Kevin Anderson | Kristina Mladenovic |
[12] | Juan Martin Del Potro | Julia Goerges |
Will face players seeded 17-24 in the third round and 5-8 in the fourth round
[13] | Sam Querrey | Sloane Stephens |
[14] | Novak Djokovic | Anastasija Sevastova |
[15] | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova |
[16] | John Isner | Elena Vesnina |
Will face players seeded 17-24 in the third round and 1-4 in the fourth round
[17] | Nick Kyrgios | Madison Keys |
[18] | Lucas Pouille | Ashleigh Barty |
[19] | Tomas Berdych | Magdalena Rybarikova |
[20] | Roberto Bautista Agut | Barbora Strycova |
[21] | Albert Ramos-Vinolas | Angelique Kerber |
[22] | Milos Raonic | Daria Kasatkina |
[23] | Gilles Muller | Daria Gavrilova |
[24] | Diego Schwartzman | Dominika Cibulkova |
Will face players seeded 9-16 in the third round
[25] | Fabio Fognini | Peng Shuai |
[26] | Adrian Mannarino | Agnieszka Radwanska |
[27] | Philipp Kohlschreiber | Petra Kvitova |
[28] | Damir Dzumhur | Mirjana Lucic-Baroni |
[29] | Richard Gasquet | Lucie Safarova |
[30] | Andrey Rublev | Kiki Bertens |
[31] | Pablo Cuevas | Ekaterina Makarova |
[32] | Mischa Zverev | Anett Kontaveit |
Will face seeded 1-8 in the third round.
Men’s Singles
Despite a couple of false starts to get his season underway, Rafael Nadal makes it over the finish line, at least as far as draw day was concerned, and is confirmed as the top seed.
Roger Federer had to concede the top spot to the Spaniard at the end of last year, but wisely points out they are both defending hefty points this fortnight.
Of course missing from the line-up are both Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori, and for our money Stan Wawrinka is also a walking question-mark having most recently pulled out of the pre-tournament Tie Break Tens tournament because of his recovering knee.
The ones to watch though are Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin who emerged as the season ending finalists, with Dimitrov finally looking as though he is capable of delivering on all that promise.
Women’s Singles
Simona Halep will go into bat as a World No. 1 for the first time at the Australian Open. With the field wide open, this could be her best chance of challenging for a slam, but waiting in the wings, the momentum of winning the WTA Finals could help another former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki to that elusive maiden Slam.
On the worried list, we should add Garbiñe Muguruza who has struggled twice in the warm-up events with injury this early on in the season.
On the Britwatch list, Johanna Konta is our best hope of a player into the second week, but her draw gets tricky as she is slated to meet Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals – who generally has the measure of her.
The Australian Open starts on 15 January.
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