Ashleigh Barty tops Australian Open 2020 women's seeds as Serena Williams returns to top 10

Home turf: Australian Ashleigh Barty is the top seed in the women's draw.
Getty Images
Joe Krishnan14 January 2020

Ashleigh Barty has been handed the top seed for the Australian Open women's singles draw.

The 23-year-old, who won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open last year, topped the end-of-year world rankings and therefore heads into her home tournament with the best path to the final.

Barty replaces 2019 champion Naomi Osaka at the summit, with the Japanese dropping to third behind Karolina Pliskova after failing to make it to the quarter-finals of any of the last three Slams.

Simona Halep, a finalist in Melbourne in 2018, takes the no. 4 spot while Elina Svitolina and Belinda Bencic are rewarded for their fine campaigns in fifth and sixth respectively.

Johanna Konta is the sole Briton included amongst the seeds in 12th. She crashed out in the second round last year but recovered to make the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and US Open and reached the last four at Roland Garros.

Serena Williams is targeting Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slams  Photo: AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Serena Williams has climbed back into the top 10 for the first time since she won the tournament while pregnant back in 2017.

The American is yet to win a Slam since her return to the sport 18 months ago but will now have a better outlook ahead of Thursday's draw after being seeded eighth.

Australian Open women's singles seeds in full:

1. Ashleigh Barty (AUS)

2. Karolina Pliskova (CZE)

3. Naomi Osaka (JPN)

4. Simona Halep (ROU)

5. Elina Svitolina (UKR)

6. Belinda Bencic (SWI)

7. Petra Kvitova (CZE)

8. Serena Williams (USA)

9. Kiki Bertens (NED)

10. Madison Keys (USA)

11. Aryna Sabalenka (LAT)

12. Johanna Konta (GBR)

13. Petra Martic (CRO)

14. Sofia Kenin (USA)

15. Marketa Vondrousova (CZE)

16. Elise Mertens (BEL)

17. Angelique Kerber (GER)

18. Alison Riske (USA)

19. Donna Vekic (SRB)

20. Karolina Muchova (CZE)

21. Amanda Anisimova (USA)

22. Maria Sakkari (GRE)

23. Dayana Yastremska (UKR)

24. Sloane Stephens (USA)

25. Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS)

26. Danielle Collins (USA)

27. Qiang Wang (CHN)

28. Anett Kontaveit (EST)

29. Elena Rybakina (RUS)

30. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)

31. Anastasija Sevastova (BLR)

32. Barbora Strycova (CZE)

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in