The top seven ranked men’s players at the ranking cut-off, plus Kellerman, make up the eight players who will vie for the singles and doubles titles at Melbourne Park from January 24 to 27.

Kellerman, a former world number eight, will be returning to his home Grand Slam for the first time since 2016.

After taking time out from the sport following the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, the 27-year-old won the Australian National Championships in November to earn the wildcard for this year’s event.

Argentina’s Fernández is one of three previous winners in this year’s men’s field, along with 2016 champion Gordon Reid of Great Britain and Japan’s Shingo Kunieda, who won the most recent of his eight Australian Open titles in 2015.

Completing the men’s line-up are Britain’s Alfie Hewett, Frenchmen Stéphane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer, and Sweden’s Stefan Olsson.

Hewett, Olsson and Houdet won the respective French Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles last year. 

In the women’s event, Germany’s Katharina Krüger has been awarded the wildcard for the second successive year.

The world number eight, who turned 28 last week, lines up alongside fellow German Sabine Ellerbrock, one of three former champions who will also contest the women's singles.

Ellerbrock, the winner in Melbourne in 2014, and 2013 champion Aniek van Koot of The Netherlands will be among those challenging reigning champion Yui Kamiji of Japan.

Kamiji's hopes of becoming the first women’s player to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same season were thwarted at Wimbledon last July, when she was beaten by Ellerbrock in the semi-finals, and Dutchwoman Diede de Groot went on to lift her maiden crown.

Having made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the 2017 Australian Open, De Groot is still looking for her first singles match win at Melbourne Park.

But she begins this year with the boost of winning last month’s NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters in English town Loughborough.

Completing the women’s line-up are The Netherlands’ Marjolein Bus, Britain’s Lucy Shuker and South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane.

Like Kruger in the women’s field, Australia’s Heath Davidson has also been awarded the wildcard for the quad events for the second successive year.

Davidson again doubles the Australian challenge in the event with defending champion Dylan Alcott also among the entries. 

Alcott, the Rio 2016 Paralympic gold medallist, is eyeing a fourth successive Australian Open quad singles title.

Joining Alcott and Davidson in the field are last month’s NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters finalists David Wagner of the United States and Britain’s Andy Lapthorne.

Wagner is a three-time former champion and the last Australian Open quad singles winner before Alcott won the first of his three titles in 2015.

The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments on the 2018 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour.