Federer & Henin head seeds

Roger Federer and Justine Henin have been named as top seeds in the men's and women's draws for 2008's opening Grand Slam, the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on Monday.

Federer is looking for his fourth title at Melbourne Park and third straight Australian Open but has been laid low by a stomach bug which forced him out of the traditional lead-up event at Kooyong.

With Rafael Nadal, the number two seed, battling fatigue, and number four seed Nikolay Davydenko struggling for form, Novak Djokovic, seeded three, has an excellent chance to claim his first Grand Slam title.

The Australian Open organises its seedings to correlate with the world rankings - as the US and French Opens do - and, with all those ranked in the world's top ten competing, last year's Australian Open runner-up Fernando Gonzalez is seeded seventh.

Spain's David Ferrer, runner up to Federer in the Masters Cup in Shanghai, is seeded number five, just above big-serving American Andy Roddick, while talented Frenchman Richard Gasquet is at number eight.

Scotland's Andy Murray, who won the Qatar Open last week, and Argentina's David Nalbandian complete the top ten seeds while local hopes rest on Lleyton Hewitt who finds himself seeded 19th.

Guillermo Canas and Tommy Haas are the only two of the top 32 ranked men not competing, while the top 32 ranked women are all playing and are seeded accordingly.

Henin, who missed the 2007 competition before winning the French and US Opens, is top seed as she vies to reclaim the title she won back in 2004.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion and runner-up in last year's event at Flushing Meadows, is number two seed and the two meet in the final of the Medibank International in Sydney ahead of the Melbourne event.

Emerging Serbian star Jelena Jankovic is seeded number three, while her compatriot Ana Ivanovic is at number four, ahead of Maria Sharapova, the beaten Australian Open finalist from 2007.

Russia's Anna Chakvetadze in seeded sixth ahead of the Williams sisters, reigning champion Serena (seven) and 2007 Wimbledon winner Venus (eight). Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova is number nine seed and Italy's Marion Bartoli is tenth seed.

Australian Open seedings:

Men's
1 Roger Federer (SUI), 2 Rafael Nadal (ESP), 3 Novak Djokovic (SRB), 4 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS), 5 David Ferrer (ESP), 6 Andy Roddick (USA), 7 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI), 8 Richard Gasquet (FRA), 9  Andy Murray (GBR), 10 David Nalbandian (ARG), 11 Tommy Robredo (ESP), 12 James Blake (USA), 13 Tomas Berdych (CZE), 14 Mikhail Youzhny (RUS), 15 Marcos Baghdatis (CYP), 16 Carlos Moya (ESP), 17 Ivan Ljubicic (CRO), 18 Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG), 19 Lleyton Hewitt (AUS), 20 Ivo Karlovic (CRO), 21 Juan Monaco (ARG), 22 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP), 23 Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA), 24 Jarkko Nieminen (FIN), 25 Fernando Verdasco (ESP), 26 Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI), 27 Nicolas Almagro (ESP), 28 Gilles Simon (FRA), 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER), 30 Radek Stepanek (CZE), 31 Igor Andreev (RUS), 32 Dmitry Tursunov (RUS).

Women's1 Justine Henin (BEL), 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS), 3 Jelena Jankovic (SRB), 4 Ana Ivanovic (SRB), 5 Maria Sharapova (RUS), 6 Anna Chakvetadze (RUS), 7 Serena Williams (USA), 8 Venus Williams (USA), 9 Daniela Hantuchova (SVK), 10 Marion Bartoli (FRA), 11 Elena Dementieva (RUS), 12 Nicole Vaidisova (CZE), 13 Tatiana Golovin (FRA), 14 Nadia Petrova (RUS), 15 Patty Schnyder (SUI), 16 Dinara Safina (RUS), 17 Shahar Peer (ISR), 18 Amelie Mauresmo (FRA), 19 Sybille Bammer (AUT), 20 Agnes Szavay (HUN), 21 Alona Bondarenko (UKR), 22 Lucie Safarova (CZE), 23 Vera Zvonareva (RUS), 24 Na Li (CHN), 25 Francesca Schiavone (ITA), 26 Victoria Azarenka (BLR), 27 Maria Kirilenko (RUS), 28 Katarina Srebotnik (SLO), 29 Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), 30 Virginie Razzano (FRA), 31 Sania Mirza (IND),32 Julia Vakulenko (UKR).

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