The 2017 Australian Open homepage claims that "seeded players will be available the week of 15 January 2017." However, they will draw on the rankings of January 9th, 2017. With the tournaments in Chennai, Doha, and Brisbane finishing up soon, the rankings for January 9th can be calculated for many players. Accordingly, the plausible seeds for the 2017 Australian Open for many players can also be deduced.
Players that will be seeded 1 through 4*
At time of writing, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic were headed to the Doha final in short time. However, the result of that match will not change the high seeds for the 2017 Australian Open.
Murray will be seeded No. 1 while Djokovic will be seeded No. 2. Due to that they will be on opposite sides of the draw and won't play one another in Melbourne Park this season unless it's in the final. The respective 3 and 4 seeds will be Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka. Both players were eliminated in the Brisbane semifinals on Saturday, results that didn't affect their seeding positions.
Players seeded 5th to 8th*
Kei Nishikori still has work to do this weekend as he is in the Brisbane final. However, even if he wins the tournament he can't improve his seeding. He will be the No. 5 seed at Melbourne Park. Following him will be No. 6 Gael Monfils, No. 7 Marin Cilic, and No. 8 Dominic Thiem. Monfils was idle this week, Cilic lost early in Chennai, while Thiem lost in the Brisbane quarters.
The players that will be seeded 9th through 16th are not all known in terms of their exact positions. However, Rafael Nadal will be the No. 9 seed, Tomas Berdych the 10th, David Goffin the 11th, and Jo Wilfried Tsonga the 12th. The next group of four features Nick Kyrgios, Roberto Bautista-Agut, Lucas Pouille, and Grigor Dimitrov.
Bautista-Agut and Dimitrov, at time of writing, are still alive in the Chennai and Brisbane draws. Accordingly they can still improve their rankings before January 9th and that makes their seeding more subject to change than other players.
Bautista-Agut projects as the 13th seed, Nick Kyrgios the 14th, Lucas Pouille the 15th, and Dimitrov the 16th.
Those projections are based on Bautista-Agut winning the Chennai title and Dimitrov losing in the Brisbane final to Nishikori. Roger Federer will not be a Top-16 seed as his ranking on Monday will be the World No. 17.
*Seedings are subject to change
Seedings can change before the release of the draw. The major reason for changes is player withdrawals. For instance if Andy Murray withdrew from the tournament, every seeded player would budge up one spot. In this way it's possible for Federer to get a Top-16 seed if one of the players above him pulls out. The seeds for the event aren't official until released by Melbourne Park, however the ones mentioned in this article are highly plausible. The tournaments that are to be played next week in Sydney and Auckland on the men's tour will not affect Australian Open seeds.
