Both Rafael Nadal's and Roger Federer's seeds are known for the 2011 Australian Open.
The 2011 Australian Open of tennis will start on Monday January 17th and it will continue for two weeks with the men's final scheduled for January 30th. The qualifying tournament will start several days before Jany 17th with the draw for qualifying events available on January 10th.
The main draw will not be released until Friday January 14th however there are some facts that already known about the men's draw: Rafael Nadal will be the 1 seed and Roger Federer will be the 2 seed.
Provided that neither of those players withdraw from the Melbourne Park Grand Slam, their seeding cannot change.
The three seed is still up for grabs as are all other seeds with Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray the leading candidates for semifinal seedings.
Some Wild Cards have been awarded and Ryan Harrison of the USA will be in the draw. Still just 18 years old, Harrison made headlines at the 2010 US Open when he eliminated veteran Ivan Ljubicic in the first round. The teenager may be able to make the third round if the draw aligns for him and young talent is always dangerous in tennis.
Other Wild Cards include Australians Peter Luczak, Marinko Matosevic, and Matthew Ebden along with French player Benoit Paire. At this point 4 more Wild Cards are to be awarded.
Roger Federer is the defending champion as he bested Andy Murray in the final last year in straight sets. Both of those players are among the top 8 favorites to win the first Slam of the calendar year but Rafael Nadal, the world number 1, is the outright favorite (all favorites from Stan James):
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Andy Murray
Novak Djokovic
Juan Martin Del Potro
Robin Soderling
Andy Roddick
Tomas Berdych
If Nadal wins the Australian Open, he will complete a sweep of the Grand Slams that started with his French Open 2010 title. Should Federer NOT defend the Aussie then he will not have an active Slam title for first time since winning Wimbledon 2003.
Juan Martin Del Potro is the dark horse as the Argentinian has the potential to win the event. However he has missed so much tennis in the last year that his fitness level and health are big question marks.
Scotland's Andy Murray is a tremendous threat as well. The last player to beat Nadal in a Grand Slam match, Murray will be looking to get rid of his Grand Slam goose egg. The prospect of having to beat Nadal and Federer in the same Grand Slam tournament may be just a little more than what should be expected from Murray but if he receives some luck, he can win the event outright.
Novak Djokovic, the finalist from last year's US Open, is a former champion from Melbourne as the Serbian took down the 2008 Australian Open title. A member of the Davis Cup winning Serbian team, Djokovic was on form to conclude 2010 although last year at the Aussie he had a fairly easy draw and still fell in the quarters.
Robin Soderling, the 5th favorite, has never had much success down under. Last year he fell in the first round and that was nothing unusual for the Swede. Should he make a deep run however he could stand to gain a substantial amount of ranking points.
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