Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep have been named top seeds for the first slam of the season - Australian Open, which will begin from January 15 at the Melbourne Park. 19-time major champion Roger Federer has been given the number two spot, Grigor Dimitrov at three, followed by Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem who completes the top five.
Former world number one Novak Djokovic, who is making a comeback after a six-month layoff due to a tennis elbow injury, is ranked 14 in the tournament. Djokovic is chasing his record seventh Australian Open title and has started off well with a reassuring 6-1, 6-4 win at the Kooyong Classic on January 10.
Whereas, Nadal made a rusty return from his injury-layoff as he slumped to a straight-sets defeat to veteran Frenchman
Richard Gasquet in the exhibition event at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne. In November, Nadal had announced the withdrawal from the ATP World Tour Finals citing a knee injury, which also forced him to subsequently pull out of Paris Masters.
For women's singles event, Caroline Wozniacki is seeded second Garbine Muguruza followed by Elina Svitolina, Venus Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Jelena Ostapenko, Caroline Garcia, Johanna Konta, CoCo Vandeweghe.
In the list of absentees, former world number one Andy Murray and Japanese tennis star Kei Nishikori will miss the first major of the season because of their respective injuries.
In men's list Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic, David Goffin, Jack Sock, Stan Wawrinka, Pablo Carreno Busta completes the top ten.
Meanwhile, 2017 Australian Open champion Serena Williams opted out of the competition, saying that her preparations had fallen just short of what she needed to be competitive after giving birth in September. The seedings for the Australian Open have been largely decided according to the ATP world rankings.
(With Agency Inputs)
