Three men's home hopes will be seeded for the first time in 43 years as Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson look to defy the odds and pull off a famous Australian Open triumph.
De Minaur will be seeded eighth, Popyrin 25th and Thompson 27th when the Open draw takes place in Melbourne on Thursday night.
Not since 1982 when grand slams only had 16 seeds and the Australian Open failed to attract the world's best players has the host country had three men protected from higher-ranked rivals in the opening rounds.
Wimbledon 2000 when Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis graced the courts is the only other time Australia has boasted three men's seeds at a slam this century.
But, without a men's grand slam singles champion in 23 years, these are relatively heady days for Australian men's tennis.
Nine players are ranked inside the top 100 and coming off a watershed showing at the US Open in September.
Australia had a total of 20 players in the singles main draws at Flushing Meadows, a 42-year first, with de Minaur making the quarter-finals after ousting Thompson in the fourth round, and Popyrin arriving as a grand slam force with victory over the great Novak Djokovic under New York's bright lights.
Four months on and de Minaur is back to full fitness after recovering from a nagging hip injury, while Popyrin and Thompson are both seeded at a major for the first time after establishing themselves in the world's top 30.
De Minaur has the comfort of being certain not to strike a higher-ranked opponent until at least the quarter-finals.
But Australia's biggest hope remains wary of unseeded threats such as enigmatic countryman Nick Kyrgios who, if able to overcome an abdominal injury, shapes as a first-round nightmare for every player in the 128-strong draw.
"Nothing is guaranteed. You still have to beat everyone. Everyone is extremely dangerous, it's very open out there and anything can happen on any given day," de Minaur said.
Despite Djokovic anointing Popyrin as a genuine grand slam title threat after falling to the 25-year-old in New York, bookmakers consider the Open largely a three-way battle.
Defending champion Jannik Sinner, the third-ranked four-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz and 10-time AO champ Djokovic are the only players with single-figure odds to hoist the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup after the Australia Day final.
As world No.1, Sinner is the top seed ahead of Alexander Zverev and Alcaraz, with Taylor Fritz rounding out the top four seeds projected to reach the semi-finals.
The seeded trio and Kyrgios, who hasn't featured in a grand slam since the 2022 US Open but is playing on an injury-protected ranking, are among 20 Australians in the main draws.
Chris O'Connell, Aleksandar Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, Thanasi Kokkinakis, James Duckworth and Adam Walton all earned direct entry to the men's singles, with Tristan Schoolkate, Li Tu, Omar Jasika and James McCabe all awarded wildcards.
Olivia Gadecki was the only woman to gain direct entry, while Ajla Tomljanovic, Daria Saville, Maya Joint, Talia Gibson and Emerson Jones are all playing on wildcards.
World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka is bidding to become the first female since Martina Hingis in 1998 to complete an Australian Open hat-trick and heads up the draw as a strong favourite after launching her season with victory at the Brisbane International.Â
Iga Swiatek, American United Cup hero Coco Gauff and Italian revelation Jasmine Paolini, who made two grand slam finals in 2024, make up the all-important top four women's seeds.
