SYDNEY - Seeds were confirmed on Wednesday for the singles events at the Australian Open (AO) 2024, which include China's Zheng Qinwen, Zhu Lin, and Wang Xinyu in the women's competition.

With a career-high ranking of world No 13, the 21-year-old Zheng is seeded 12th - a leap from her last year's position of 29th. For Zhu and Wang, seeded 29th and 30th respectively, the 2024 Australian Open will make their first appearance as seeded players.

On the women's side, world No 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland is the top seed, followed by defending champion Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. The US Open titleholder Coco Gauff of the United States comes as the fourth seed.

World NO 1 and 10-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic is the top seed in the men's singles event, ahead of the second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, the reigning Wimbledon champion.

"Historically, Djokovic has an unblemished 42-0 win-loss record as the No.1 seed at the Australian Open," the AO organizer noted in a statement.

The draw ceremony of AO will take place at 1:00 pm local time on Thursday, just days before the first Grand Slam event of the year officially kicks off at Melbourne Park on Jan 14.