Aussie 43-year first confirmed as Australian Open seeds locked in

For the first time in 43 years, three Australian men will be seeded at their home grand slam.

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Monday’s release of the ATP and WTA rankings, which will be used for the seedings at the Australian Open, confirmed Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson will all be protected from facing another top opponent until at least the third round.

De Minaur will be the highest-seeded Aussie man since 2006, when Lleyton Hewitt went in as the No.3 seed, after crucially cracking the top eight just in time for the tournament.

The Sydneysider was set to be ranked No.9 until Andrey Rublev’s upset loss at the Hong Kong Open cost him a huge haul of ranking points, allowing de Minaur to move up a spot. It means de Minaur cannot face a higher-ranked player until the quarter-finals.

Given de Minaur has never beaten a seed at the Australian Open, never mind a higher-ranked player, this will be critical for his chances of becoming the first local man into the last eight at Melbourne Park since Nick Kyrgios in 2015.

De Minaur has a 25 per cent chance of being lined up to face an Aussie seed in the third round, though, with Alexei Popyrin to be seeded 25th with Jordan Thompson 27th.

Popyrin dropped a spot after he was knocked out of the Brisbane International early, while Jiri Lehecka (the new No.24) went on to win the event.

Being ranked in the 25th to 32nd bracket means neither Popyrin or Thompson can face a seed until the third round, but at that stage they would face a top-eight player, such as de Minaur.

Popyrin has made the third round three times before (2019, 2020 and 2023) while Thompson has four times been stopped in the second round.

This will be the first time since 1982 that three Aussie men will be seeded at the Australian Open; and that was in an era when an overwhelming majority of the field was made up of either Americans or Aussies.

Reigning champion Jannik Sinner will be the No.1 seed, and comes in as the favourite after winning both hard court majors in 2024, while Wimbledon and French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz will be No.3, meaning they could be drawn to face each other in the semi-finals.

After failing to win a slam in 2024 and generally playing fewer tournaments, 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic will only be seeded No.7, his lowest since 2018 when he was still on the way back from an elbow injury.

This means Djokovic will be drawn to face one of the top four – Sinner, Alcaraz, No.2 Alex Zverev or No.4 Taylor Fritz – in the quarter-finals.

A whopping 10 Aussie men made it into the main draw, with Nick Kyrgios (via a protected ranking), Chris O’Connell, Aleks Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, Thanasi Kokkinakis, James Duckworth and Adam Walton joining de Minaur, Popyrin and Thompson.

That’s along with four wildcards – Tristan Schoolkate, Li Tu, Omar Jasika and James McCabe.

On the women’s side, back-to-back champion Aryna Sabalenka will be the No.1 seed ahead of Iga Swiatek, the five-time slam winner who’s yet to make it past the semi-finals at Melbourne Park, and Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion who lost to Sabalenka in last year’s semi-finals in Melbourne – in what was arguably the true final.

The biggest name missing is world No.10 Barbora Krejcikova, the reigning Wimbledon champion, who withdrew this week due to a back injury.

There are no Aussie women seeded, with only Olivia Gadecki earning her way into the main draw, along with five wildcards – Daria Saville, Alja Tomljanovic, Maya Joint, Talia Gibson and world No.1 junior Emerson Jones.

There are another 25 Australians who entered Australian Open qualifying and could yet make the draw, including top-ranked Aussie woman Kim Birrell, who is No.99 in the world.

The Australian Open will officially confirm the list of seeds early this week ahead of Thursday afternoon’s draw.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2025 SEEDS

Men’s Singles

1. Jannik Sinner

2. Alexander Zverev

3. Carlos Alcaraz

4. Taylor Fritz

5. Daniil Medvedev

6. Casper Ruud

7. Novak Djokovic

8. Alex de Minaur

9. Andrey Rublev

10. Grigor Dimitrov

11. Stefanos Tsitsipas

12. Tommy Paul

13. Holger Rune

14. Ugo Humbert

15. Jack Draper

16. Lorenzo Musetti

17. Frances Tiafoe

18. Hubert Hurkacz

19. Karen Khachanov

20. Arthur Fils

21. Ben Shelton

22. Sebastian Korda

23. Alejandro Tabilo

24. Jiri Lehecka

25. Alexei Popyrin

26. Tomas Machac

27. Jordan Thompson

28. Sebastian Baez

29. Felix Auger-Aliassime

30. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard

31. Francisco Cerundolo

32. Flavio Cobolli

Women’s Singles

1. Aryna Sabalenka

2. Iga Swiatek

3. Coco Gauff

4. Jasmine Paolini

5. Qinwen Zheng

6. Elena Rybakina

7. Jessica Pegula

8. Emma Navarro

9. Daria Kasatkina

10. Danielle Collins

11. Paula Badosa

12. Diana Shnaider

13. Anna Kalinskaya

14. Mirra Andreeva

15. Beatriz Haddad-Maia

16. Jelena Ostapenko

17. Marta Kostyuk

18. Donna Vekic

19. Madison Keys

20. Karolina Muchova

21. Victoria Azarenka

22. Magdalena Frech

23. Katie Boulter

24. Liudmila Samsonova

25. Yulia Putintseva

26. Ekaterina Alexandrova

27. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

28. Elina Svitolina

29. Linda Noskova

30. Leylah Fernández

31. Maria Sakkari

32. Dayana Yastremska