Lleyton Hewitt's confirmation as number one men's seed for the Australian Open made him the first Australian to receive that honour in successive years of the Open tennis era.

Hewitt was the only Australian across the 32 men's and 32 women's seedings.

Veteran American Andre Agassi received the number two men's spot as he aimed to win his fourth Australian Open and last year's finalist Marat Safin was third ahead of Spanish clay courter Juan-Carlos Ferrero, in line with ATP rankings.

That policy worked well for players who performed well in the few 2003 lead-up tournaments, such as Austrian Stefan Koubek, who was ranked in the mid-50s at the end of 2002 but received the final men's seeding for the Open.

In the women's seeds, sisters Serena and Venus Williams took the top two berths ahead of Jennifer Capriati, with Belgian Kim Clijsters at number four as the main challenger to the American trio.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP