The main draw of the year’s opening major is set to take place on Thursday, 15 January, in Melbourne.
Men’s second seed is two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner, a seeding position ensuring that, should he and Alcaraz keep winning, they can only meet in the final.
Should that meeting occur, it would be the fourth consecutive Grand Slam final featuring the Italian and the Spaniard, and their first clash at the Australian Open.
Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are the top three seeds in the women’s draw for the second consecutive year.
Last year at Melbourne Park, Sabalenka and Swiatek were one point away from facing off in a No.1 v No.2 final, a match-up that remains a possibility in 2026 given their top two seeding positions.
The player who prevented that scenario in 2025 was Madison Keys, who saved match point to stun Swiatek in the semifinals, then upset two-time defending champion Sabalenka in the final, in a fairytale run to her first Grand Slam title.
Keys returns as the defending champion and the No.9 seed, one of four American women among the top 10 seeds.
Alexander Zverev is the third seed – marking the second straight year he, Alcaraz and Sinner make up the top three seeds – while ten-time champion Novak Djokovic begins his 21st Australian Open campaign as the No.4 seed. Newly-minted top-five player Lorenzo Musetti rounds out the top five men’s seeds.
Seeded sixth is Alex de Minaur, making him the highest-seeded Australian in AO men’s singles in 20 years, while marking his third straight year as a top-10 seed.
On the women’s side, 30th seed Maya Joint is the first Australian woman to be seeded since Ash Barty won the 2022 Australian Open as the top seed.
Also seeded are other Grand Slam champions, including Elena Rybakina (5), Naomi Osaka – who secured a notable top-16 seed – Jelena Ostapenko (24), Sofia Kenin (27), Emma Raducanu (28) and Marketa Vondrousova (32).
On the men’s side, 2021 US Open champion and last week’s Brisbane winner Daniil Medvedev – a three-time Australian Open finalist – is the only seeded player outside the top four to have won a major.
Men’s seeds
1 Carlos Alcaraz
2 Jannik Sinner
3 Alexander Zverev
4 Novak Djokovic
5 Lorenzo Musetti
6 Alex de Minaur
7 Felix Auger-Aliassime
8 Ben Shelton
9 Taylor Fritz
10 Alexander Bublik
Women’s seeds
1 Aryna Sabalenka
2 Iga Swiatek
3 Coco Gauff
4 Amanda Anisimova
5 Elena Rybakina
6 Jessica Pegula
7 Jasmine Paolini
8 Mirra Andreeva
9 Madison Keys
10 Belinda Bencic
