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Tennis: Barty, Djokovic among top seeds for 2022 Australian Open

Ash Barty of Australia will be the No. 1 seed in the women's singles circuit at the 2022 Australian Open. Photo by Matt Turner/EPA-EFE
1 of 5 | Ash Barty of Australia will be the No. 1 seed in the women's singles circuit at the 2022 Australian Open. Photo by Matt Turner/EPA-EFE

Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Women's No. 1 Ash Barty of Australia and men's No. 1 Novak Djokovic will be the top-seeded players in the singles circuit of the 2022 Australian Open, tournament organizers announced Tuesday.

The Top 32 players for each respective circuit will find out their first-round foes through the tournament's draw Thursday in Melbourne. The first Grand Slam tournament on the annual tennis calendar runs from Jan. 17 through 30.

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Each draw will feature 128 total competitors, with 16 qualifiers and eight wildcard entrants. The winners of the men's and women's singles circuits will take home $4.4 million apiece.

Belarusian Aryna Sebalenka, the No. 2 player in the WTA rankings, earned the No. 2 seed in the women's singles circuit. No. 3 Garbine Muguruza of Spain and No. 4 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic also earned the same seed as their respective world rankings.

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World No. 6 Maria Sakkari of Greece took the No. 5 seed. No. 7 Annett Kontaveit of Estonia and No. 8 Iga Swiatek of Poland were seeded No. 6 and 7, respectively.

World No. 9 Paula Badosa, No. 10 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and No. 11 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia rounded out the Top 10 seeds for the tournament.

Sofia Kenin, ranked No. 12 in the world, is the top-seeded American (No. 11). Fellow American Coco Gauff is seeded No. 18. Americans Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins are seeded No. 21 and 27, respectively. Sweden's Belinda Bencic, a 2020 Summer Games gold medalist, is the women's No. 22 seed.

World No. 14 Naomi Osaka of Japan, the defending women's singles champion, is the No. 13 seed. The Top 32 women's seeds feature four former champions in Osaka, Kenin, No. 16 Angelique Kerber of Germany and No. 24 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Seven-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams, ranked No. 47, and No. 5 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic are among the top women's players who won't compete in Melbourne.

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Djokovic, who won the last three singles titles in Melbourne, and No. 6 Rafael Nadal of Spain were the only former Australia Open champions included among the Top 32 men's seeds.

Djokovic, who experienced issues with his entry into the country due to a canceled visa, received "exemption permission" from being vaccinated against COVID-19 to compete in the tournament. He practiced Tuesday at Melbourne Park.

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Daniil Medvedev of Russia, Summer Games gold medalist Alexander Zverev of Germany, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, Andrey Rublev of Russia, Matteo Berretini of Italy, Casper Ruud of Norway, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and Hubert Hurkacz of Poland also are among the Top 10 men's seeds.

No. 20 Taylor Fritz, No. 22 John Isner and No. 23 Reilly Opelka were the American men who were given seeds for the tournament.

World No. 15 Dominic Thiem of Austria, No. 16 Roger Federer of Switzerland and No. 103 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland are among the men's players who won't be in Melbourne. Wawrinka won the tournament's singles title in 2014. Federer is a six-time Australian Open champion.

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