Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek seeded first at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Defending champion Rafael Nadal is the top men's seed in the absence of injured world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, with nine-time winner Novak Djokovic seeded fourth ahead of Thursday's draw for the Australian Open.

Alcaraz withdrew from this year's first Grand Slam tournament earlier this week with a hamstring injury. Nadal is No. 2 in the ATP rankings.

No.1-ranked Iga Swiatek was named the women's top seed on Wednesday as she looks to add the Australian Open title to the French and US Open titles she already holds.

Seeded singles players for the Australian Open:

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. Daniel 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. Shuai Zhang

24. Victoria Azarenka

25. Marie Bouzkova

26. Elise Mertens

27. Irina-Camelia Begu

28. Amanda Anisimova

29. Qinwen Zheng

30. Karolina Pliskova

31. Kaia Kanepi

32. Jil Teichmann