A seeded withdrawal reshapes Australian Open draw as former Grand Slam champion benefits

A seeded player from the women’s draw at the Australian Open has withdrawn, after it was confirmed that Veronika Kudermetova will not be present at the season’s first Grand Slam. The former World No. 9 was set to be seeded at the tournament, a development that will now lead to changes in the draw.

Currently ranked World No. 31, Kudermetova was projected to be the 29th seed, following the recent withdrawal of 2024 runner-up Zheng Qinwen a few days ago. However, with the latest update, Kudermetova has been removed from the Australian Open entry list, confirming her absence and freeing up another seeded spot.

The 28-year-old will miss the Australian Open for the first time after seven consecutive appearances. It is also her first absence from a Grand Slam since making her Melbourne debut in 2019, having competed in 26 consecutive Grand Slam main draws up to this point. Her only previous Slam absence came at Wimbledon 2022, when Russian and Belarusian players were barred from the competition.

This withdrawal represents a significant blow to Kudermetova’s ranking, as she was defending a fourth-round finish from the 2025 Australian Open, her first appearance in the second week of a Grand Slam since 2022. During that run, she defeated players such as Katie Boulter and Beatriz Haddad Maia, before losing to Elina Svitolina. As a result, Kudermetova is set to lose around 300 ranking points in the coming weeks, which could see her drop outside the top 40 once the Australian Open concludes.

At the time of the ranking cut-off, the top 32 players included Maya Joint as the last seeded player. Following Zheng Qinwen’s withdrawal, Anna Kalinskaya moved into the seeded positions. Now, Kudermetova’s exit opens up another seeded spot, and this time it goes to a former Grand Slam champion.

The beneficiary is 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, currently ranked World No. 34, who has earned a last-minute place among the seeds. This could prove especially significant for the Czech, who has repeatedly shown she can compete at the highest level when fully fit, but whose ranking has suffered due to injuries and a lack of match play.

As a seeded player, Vondrousova will avoid facing higher-ranked opponents in the first two rounds, and would only meet another seed in the third round, potentially against a top-eight player.

It is undoubtedly positive news for the Czech, who is not defending any points in Australia after missing last year’s event due to injury. She also arrives on a streak of four consecutive Grand Slam main-draw wins, dating back to her US Open quarter-final run, where she ultimately withdrew before taking the court against Aryna Sabalenka.