The 2017 Australian Open starts on January 16th with the January 9th rankings the ones that will be used to calculate the seeds. Accordingly, results for either WTA Hobart or WTA Sydney, two tournaments that will run this week, will not matter. Angelique Kerber, the defending champion, will enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed while Serena Williams, the 2015 champion (most recent), will enter as the No. 2 seed. Seeding takes into account withdrawn players with Victoria Azarenka, Madison Keys, and Petra Kvitova, players that have top-32 rankings, the ones that have pulled out.
However, pending other withdrawals the seeds can be calculated.
Radwanska/Halep top-four seeds
Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep will round out the top-four seeds for the tournament, meaning that those two players, plus Kerber and Serena will be the expected semifinalists if the seeds held up. Players seeded 5th to 8th will be (5) Karolina Pliskova, (6) Dominika Cibulkova, (7) Garbine Muguruza, and (8) Svetlana Kuznetsova. The most accomplished player in this group of four is Kuznetsova, the two-time Grand Slam champion. However, she has never made it past the quarters at Melbourne Park.
Players that will be seeded 9th through 16th are ones that will have a draw to the 4th round without having to face a higher-ranked player at the 2017 Australian Open.
They will be (9) Johanna Konta, (10) Carla Suarez-Navarro, (11) Elina Svitolina, (12) Timea Bacsinszky, (13) Venus Williams, (14) Elena Vesnina, (15) Roberta Vinci, and (16) Barbora Strycova. The bright light in this group of players is Konta, a semifinalist from a year ago. Svitolina has also been on strong form to open the season while Suarez-Navarro is a bit of a mystery player right now as she has yet to open her 2017 campaign.
Seeds subject to change
The seeds are subject to change with withdrawals the main reason. For instance if Serena Williams was to withdraw from the tournament before the draw was released then every player seeded below her would bump up one spot. Key players that hold a seed between 17th and 32nd are (17) Caroline Wozniacki, (18) Sam Stosur, (28) Alize Cornet, and (29) Monica Puig.
