Federer, Nadal top Australian Open seeds

MELBOURNE, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are the top two men's seeds for the Australian Open, which begins its 14-day run Monday in Melbourne.

Officials for the Australian Open Thursday released the list of seedings for the year's first Grand Slam tournament, which concludes with the men's singles final Jan. 31. The top 32 ranked men are all expected to play in the 98th edition of the tournament.

Nadal is the defending Australian Open champion and Federer took the title three times (2004, 2006, 2007). The 2008 title went to third-seeded Novak Djokovic for his sole Grand Slam title.

The draw for the event is to be released Friday.

The complete 2010 Australian Open men's seeding list:

1. Roger Federer, Switzerland

2. Rafael Nadal, Spain

3. Novak Djokovic, Serbia

4. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina

5. Andy Murray, Great Britain

6. Nikolay Davydenko, Russia

7. Andy Roddick, United States

8. Robin Soderling, Sweden

9. Fernando Verdasco, Spain

10. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France

11. Fernando Gonzalez, Chile

12. Gael Monfils, France

13. Radek Stepanek, Czech Republic

14. Marin Cilic, Croatia

15. Gilles Simon, France

16. Tommy Robredo, Spain

17. David Ferrer, Spain

18. Tommy Haas, Germany

19. Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland

20. Mikhail Youzhny, Russia

21. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic

22. Lleyton Hewitt, Australia

23. Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spain

24. Ivan Ljubicic, Croatia

25. Sam Querrey, United States

26. Nicolas Almagro, Spain

27. Philipp Kohlschreiber, Germany

28. Jurgen Melzer, Austria

29. Viktor Troicki, Serbia

30. Juan Monaco, Argentina

31. Albert Montanes, Spain

32. Jeremy Chardy, France