Australian Open Draw 2016: Time, Seedings, Wild Cards As Nadal, Federer And More Await Fates

The two defending champions will be top seeds when the draw for the 2016 Australian Open is made in Melbourne on Friday, local time. Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams each won the Australian Open 12 months ago en route to claiming three of the year’s four Grand Slam titles to establish dominant positions at the top of the world rankings.

Djokovic has won the title in Melbourne on an Open-Era record five occasions. In three of those finals, he beat the man who will be seeded second this time around, Andy Murray. The Scot has lost a total of four finals Down Under, with his other loss coming against Roger Federer, who will be seeded at No. 3. Following them comes 2014 winner Stan Wawrinka and the man he beat in the final, 2009 champion Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard’s position means that he will be drawn to face one of the top four as early as the quarterfinals.

Also in the top 10 are former Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and last year’s semifinalist Tomas Berdych. Meanwhile, the home challenge will come from Bernard Tomic, who has benefited from the withdrawal of Richard Gasquet to move up to No. 16 seed, and Nick Kyrgios. Both have had their attitude and temperament questioned heavily in their young careers, but now very much have the responsibility of carrying Australian hopes. That will become even clearer over the next two weeks, with Lleyton Hewitt, given a wildcard for the event, playing in his last tournament before retiring.

The United States knows all about the challenges of replacing retired greats. The next American Grand Slam challenger has yet to emerge following the retirement of Andy Roddick, and just three U.S. men will be seeded in Melbourne -- John Isner, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson.

Regardless of the seedings, there can be little doubt that Djokovic will go into the tournament, which begins on Monday, as an overwhelming favorite. The Serbian picked right up where he left off last year when producing one of his best ever performances to beat Nadal for the loss of three games to take the title in Qatar last week.

There is more doubt about top women’s seed Serena Williams. The American has not completed a match since her hopes of a Calendar Grand Slam were stunningly dashed by a defeat in the semifinals of the U.S. Open last September. After sitting out the remainder of 2015, citing the need to rest an array of ailments, Williams then withdrew from her first match at the Hopman Cup last week with a knee injury. She will, though, be in the draw and has shown before that she can win a Grand Slam after showing little of form beforehand, notably when winning the Australian Open in 2007.

The woman she beat in that final, Maris Sharapova will have to make do with the fifth seed, behind world No.2 Simona Halep and former Wimbledon finalists Garbiñe Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded at three and four, respectively. Down at eight, Venus Williams, despite surprisingly never having won the Australian Open, will be someone that none of the top seeds will want to see near them in the draw.

Yet the most dangerous floater is surely Victoria Azarenka. The Belarusian has struggled to stay fit since she won the second of her two Australian Open titles in 2013, but she is now getting back to her best. After winning a warm-up event in Brisbane last week, when she never lost more than three games in a set, Azarenka, despite being just the 14th seed, could be the biggest threat to Williams’ hopes of defending her title.

Draw time: 7 p.m. EST

Men’s seeds
1. Novak Djokovic (SRB)
2. Andy Murray (GBR)
3. Roger Federer (SUI)
4. Stan Wawrinka (SUI)
5. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
6. Tomas Berdych (CZE)
7. Kei Nishikori (JPN)
8. David Ferrer (ESP)
9. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
10. John Isner (USA)
11. Kevin Anderson (RSA)
12. Marin Cilic (CRO)
13. Milos Raonic (CAN)
14. Gilles Simon (FRA)
15. David Goffin (BEL)
16. Bernard Tomic (AUS)
17. Benoit Paire (FRA)
18. Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
19. Dominic Thiem (AUT)
20. Fabio Fognini (ITA)
21. Viktor Troicki (SRB)
22. Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
23. Gael Monfils (FRA)
24. Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP)
25. Jack Sock (USA)
26. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)
27. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
28. Andreas Seppi (ITA)
29. Nick Kyrgios (AUS)
30. Jeremy Chardy (FRA)
31. Steve Johnson (USA)
32. Joao Sousa (POR)

Women’s seeds
1. Serena Williams (USA)
2. Simona Halep (ROU)
3. Garbine Muguruza (ESP)
4. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
5. Maria Sharapova (RUS)
6. Petra Kvitova
7. Angelique Kerber (GER)
8. Venus Williams (USA)
9. Karolina Pliskova (CZE)
10. Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP)
11. Timea Bacsinszky (SUI)
12. Belinda Bencic (SUI)
13. Roberta Vinci (ITA)
14. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
15. Madison Keys (USA)
16. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
17. Sara Errani (ITA)
18. Elina Svitolina (UKR)
19. Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
20. Ana Ivanovic (SRB)
21. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)
22. Andrea Petkovic (GER)
23. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
24. Sloane Stephens (USA)
25. Samantha Stosur (AUS)
26. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
27. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (SVK)
28. Kristina Mladenovic (FRA)
29. Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU)
30. Sabine Lisicki (GER)
31. Lesia Tsurenko (UKR)
32. Caroline Garcia (FRA)

Men’s wildcards
Matthew Ebden (AUS)
James Duckworth (AUS)
Quentin Halys (FRA)
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)
Omar Jasika (AUS)
Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN)
Jordan Thompson (AUS)
Noah Rubin (USA)

Women’s wildcards
Kimberly Birrell (AUS)
Samantha Crawford (USA)
Oceane Dodin (FRA)
Priscilla Hon (AUS)
Maddison Inglis (AUS)
Tammi Patterson (AUS)
Storm Sanders (AUS)
Han Xinyun (CHN)