Australian Open Seeding

The seeding for this years Australian Open has been completed and both the men's and the women's defending champions have been seeded first. Novak Djokovic leads the men, while Victoria Azarenka is top of the women's seeding. Roger Federer comes in as second seed looking to add to his grand slam collection with another title here in Melbourne. Andy Murray takes advantage of Nadal's absence to be seeded three while David Ferrer is seeded four. The seeding from 5-8 is as strong as it's been in years for a grand slam. Tomas Berdych, Juan Martin Del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Janko Tipsarevic are all capable of upsetting the top four making the quarter finals a difficult prospect for everyone. Richard Gasquet is seeded ninth and could be one to watch after an impressive win in Doha last week. Nicolas Almagro is the tenth seed and after pushing Djokovic in Abu Dhabi he might be confident of a good run. Other notable seeds are the big serving North Americans, John Isner (12) and Milos Raonic (14), German veteran Tommy Haas (20), big hitting Jerzy Janowicz (25) and 2012 Newcomer of the Year Martin Klizan (28) which means the impressive Niklay Davydenko goes unseeded meaning he could turn up early for anybody.
          Victoria Azarenka will be fit to defend her title after an infection forced her to pull out of her semi final match in Brisbane last week. She is seeded ahead of favourite Serena Williams who is seeded third. Maria Sharapova is the second seed but there are doubts about her fitness after she pulled out of Brisbane last week. Agnieszka Radwanska made her first Grand Slam final appearance last year at Wimbledon and comes in here seeded fourth. Dangerous German Angelique Kerber is seeded five as she aims for her first major. Na Li and Sara Errani could be dark horses during the fortnight and they are seeded six and seven. Big hitting Petra Kvitova is eighth,while home favourite Sam Stosur is ninth. The top ten is concluded with Dane Caroline Wozniacki who continues her quest to finally win a grand slam. Ana Ivanovic looks to be returning to the form that saw her lift the French Open and she could be dangerous as the 13th seed. Other notable seeds are Maria Kirilenko (14), Dominika Cibulkova (15), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (24), Venus Williams (25) and Sloane Stephens (29).