Australian No.1 Sam Stosur will have to negotiate a huge hurdle if she is to go on to reach her first Brisbane International quarter-final in six appearances when she takes on reigning French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in the opening round.
The 32-year-old Queenslander has split her two meetings with the fourth seed, but they have only played on clay before. Muguruza downed Stosur in the semifinals of her maiden grand slam title run in Paris last year but has since struggled to emulate that form.
The winner is on drawn to meet fifth-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals with a semifinal showdown against either second seed Dominika Cibulkova or seventh seed Elena Vesnina on the cards.
Top seed Angelique Kerber will meet either Queensland wildcard Ash Barty or a qualifier in the second round with a possible quarterfinal against sixth seed Elina Svitolina. Ukrainian Svitolina, who downed Serena Williams en route to the Rio Olympics quarterfinals in 2016, will need to find a way past the Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig in the first round.
Third seed Karolina Pliskova pulled off the match of the tournament two years ago, saving two match points to upset Victoria Azarenka in the first round. Then ranked No.23 in the world, the now 24-year-old is coming off her best season in which she reached her first grand slam final at the US Open and finished the year ranked No.6.
She takes on fiesty Kazakh 21-year-old Yulia Putintseva first up with eighth seed Roberta Vinci and top seed Kerber likely standing in her path to reaching a maiden Brisbane final.