New mum Serena Williams will be chasing a record $4 million in prizemoney when she returns to defend her Australian Open crown in January.
Tournament director Craig Tiley announced on Tuesday that Williams, who gave birth to a daughter in September, would be back in Melbourne for the Jan 15-28 tournament.
Williams was eight weeks pregnant when she won a record 23rd grand slam and announced after the birth that the initials of her daughter's name Alexis Olympia Ohanian were a nod to the Australian Open.
Tiley said Williams was back in training to defend her title.
"Serena will be back," Tiley said.
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"She wants to come back in 2018 and defend her title and she's in training now.
"There's several months to go and obviously it will be up to her as to where she is with her fitness."
In the men's field Tiley confirmed six-time winner Novak Djokovic and fellow former world No.1 Andy Murray, who have both battled injury this year, would play in Melbourne 2018.
Australia's charge in the men's draw will be led by world No.21 Nick Kyrgios but Tiley couldn't guarantee that Bernard Tomic would get a start.
Plummenting to 144 in the rankings, Tomic would likely need to play qualifying unless Tennis Australia offer the struggling star a wildcard.
"Bernie always tends to pick it up toward the end of the season and do well leading into the year so hopefully he will be able to do that," Tiley said.
"There's still quite a bit of tennis to be played before the end of the year so that's (a wildcard) is a bridge we'll cross when we come to it."
The men's and women's winners will collect a $4-million cheque, up from $3.7m in 2017, while the entire prizemoney pool has increased by 10 per cent to $55 million.
Tiley said the winners' purse had broken a barrier.
"It's the first time ever that both the women and the men's winner will receive $4m each, that has not been done by any other grand slam or any other event," Tiley said.
The women's trophy will be presented by US great Billie Jean King, 50 years after she won her first Australian Open title.
The 2018 edition of the tournament marks 30 years since the tournament was first played at Melbourne Park, with the venue in the midst of a $975-million redevelopment.
Tiley said while the upgrade to include a 5,000-seat sunken show-court wouldn't be complete until 2019, the tournament wouldn't be affected, with more music and a larger kids zone part of the attractions.
