The seedings for the Australian Open have been released and Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic has been dealt a blow despite showing the best form of her career in the last 12 months.
Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players cost Tomljanovic and Nick Kyrgios dearly.
Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist, was given the 20th seed, while Tomljanovic missed the seeds altogether despite making the final eight at the All England Club and backing it up at the US Open.
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Tomljanovic, Australia’s No.1 female player, fell out of the seedings after a knee complaint forced her to withdraw from last week’s United Cup.
The precautionary move now leaves the Aussie open to drawing a higher-ranked opponent – potentially world No.1 Iga Swiatek – as early as the first round.
Swiatek, the reigning French and US Open champion, leads the women’s seeds from Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur with American Jessica Pegula at No.3.
Tomljanovic missed out by two rankings spots and would have made the cut if the seedings and draw were done at the start of the year.
She dropped to world No.35, down from a career-high world No.33 after a stellar 2022 season. With former world No.1 Simona Halep not playing this year, Tomljanovic would have snared a seeding had she won a singles match at the United Cup because of the ranking points on offer. But she opted to sit out to be safe.
Kyrgios would have easily been inside the top 20 after finishing runner-up at Wimbledon to Novak Djokovic but the Wimbledon decision prevented him from jagging a top 16 seeding, which comes with the benefit of avoiding the world’s elite players until at least the fourth round. Kyrgios is seeded 20, three spots ahead clear of Alex de Minaur at No.23.
Kyrgios and De Minaur will not face a fellow seed until the third round. Defending champion Rafael Nadal is the men’s top seed with nine-time winner Djokovic named the fourth seed, in the absence of injured world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
Norway’s Casper Ruud is No.2 with Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas is at No.3.
The Australian Open draw will be revealed at 3pm on Thursday.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2023 SEEDINGS
Men: 1. Rafael Nadal, 2. Casper Ruud, 3. Stefanos Tsitsipas, 4. Novak Djokovic, 5. Andrey Rublev, 6. Felix Auger-Aliassime, 7. Daniil Medvedev, 8. Taylor Fritz, 9. Holger Rune, 10. Hubert Hurkacz, 11. Cameron Norrie, 12. Alexander Zverev, 13. Matteo Berrettini, 14. Pablo Carreno Busta, 15. Jannik Sinner, 16. Frances Tiafoe, 17. Marin Cilic, 18. Lorenzo Musetti, 19. Karen Khachanov, 20. Nick Kyrgios, 21. Denis Shapovalov, 22. Borna Coric, 23. Alex de Minaur, 24. Diego Schwartzman, 25. Roberto Bautista Agut, 26. Dan Evans, 27. Miomir Kecmanovic, 28. Grigor Dimitrov, 29. Francisco Cerundolo, 30. Sebastian Korda, 31. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 32. Yoshihito Nishioka
Women: 1. Iga Swiatek, 2. Ons Jabeur, 3. Jessica Pegula, 4. Caroline Garcia, 5. Aryna Sabalenka, 6. Maria Sakkari, 7. Coco Gauff, 8. Daria Kasatkina, 9. Veronika Kudermetova, 10. Madison Keys, 11. Paula Badosa, 12. Belinda Bencic, 13. Danielle Collins, 14. Beatriz Haddad Maia, 15. Petra Kvitova, 16. Anett Kontaveit, 17. Jelena Ostapenko, 18. Liudmila Samsonova, 19. Ekaterina Alexandrova, 20. Barbora Krejcikova, 21. Martina Trevisan, 22. Elena Rybakina, 23. Zhang Shuai, 24. Victoria Azarenka, 25. Maria Bouzkova, 26. Elise Mertens, 27. Irina-Camelia Begu, 28. Amanda Anisimova, 29. Zheng Qinwen, 30. Karolina Pliskova, 31. Kaia Kanepi, 32. Jil Teichmann.
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