Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka were seeded No. 1 and 2, respectively, for the U.S. Open, which begins Monday.
That sets up the possibility of a rematch of last year’s final, won by Williams in three sets after Azarenka was up a break in the third.
Azarenka just beat Williams in a third-set tiebreak on Sunday to win the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, serving notice that she can beat arguably the greatest women’s player ever on a big stage.
Williams enters the Open with 16 Grand Slam singles titles, two shy of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who won 18 apiece. She is 77-4 since the start of last year’s Wimbledon.
Maria Sharapova of Russia, who completed the career Grand Slam last year by winning the French Open, is seeded No. 3, and Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who reached the semifinals of Wimbledon this year, is No. 4.
Australia’s Samantha Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion, is seeded No. 12, and 2004 US Open singles champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia is seeded No. 28. Two-time US Open champion Venus Williams is the only former champion unseeded.
After Serena Williams, the remaining seeded Americans are No. 16 seed Sloane Stephens and No. 24 seed Jamie Hampton.
The singles draws for the 2013 US Open will be conducted live during an official draw ceremony on Thursday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
2013 US Open Women’s Singles Seeds
1. Serena Williams, United States
2. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus
3. Maria Sharapova, Russia
4. Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland
5. Sara Errani, Italy
6. Li Na, China
7. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark
8. Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic
9. Angelique Kerber, Germany
10. Jelena Jankovic, Serbia
11. Roberta Vinci, Italy
12. Samantha Stosur, Australia
13. Kirsten Flipkens, Belgium
14. Ana Ivanovic, Serbia
15. Maria Kirilenko, Russia
16. Sloane Stephens, United States
17. Sabine Lisicki, Germany
18. Dominika Cibulkova, Slovakia
19. Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain
20. Sorana Cirstea, Romania
21. Nadia Petrova, Russia
22. Simona Halep, Romania
23. Elena Vesnina, Russia
24. Jamie Hampton, United States
25. Ekaterina Makarova, Russia
26. Kaia Kanepi, Estonia
27. Alize Cornet, France
28. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia
29. Mona Barthel, Germany
30. Magdalena Rybarikova, Slovakia
31. Laura Robson, Great Britain
32. Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic
