MELBOURNE: Defending champion Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek will be the top seeds at the Australian Open in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year which begins Sunday at Melbourne Park.

The men’s seedings mirrored the ATP rankings as of Wednesday from Nos. 1-32, with 24-time major winner Djokovic followed by Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, the only player to beat him at a Grand Slam event in 2023.

The women’s seedings followed the WTA rankings from Nos. 1-8, then Barbora Krejcikova is promoted to No. 9 at Melbourne Park because of the injury enforced absence of her fellow Czech Karolina Muchova, the French Open finalist last year.

Muchova hasn’t played since losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff in the U.S. Open semifinals last September.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is pregnant and skipping the year’s first major and last year’s U.S. Open semifinalist Madison Keys has an injured shoulder, taking the players ranked 17th and 18th out of the equation for Australia.

The seedings mean that players in the top 32 avoid each other in the early rounds when the brackets are determined for the major tournaments. The top two seeded players cannot meet before the final.

India’s star player Sumit Nagal defeated France’s Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the Australian Open 2024 singles qualifiers on Wednesday. Nagal has progressed to the next round of the tournament. Nagal defeated Geoffrey 6-3,7-5 in a match that lasted more than an hour. Nagal is slated to take on Australia’s Edward Winter in the next round on Thursday morning.