Defending champion Serena Williams top women’s seed for U.S. Open

Serena Williams, the defending champion and No. 1-ranked women’s player in the world, received the top seed for the U.S. Open, which begins Monday in New York.

Seeded second is Victoria Azarenka, who beat Williams in three sets last week in Cincinnati and led Williams, 5-3, in the third of last year’s U.S. Open final before dropping the final four games. Maria Sharapova, who owns a career Grand Slam with wins at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open and finally, last season, at the French Open, is seeded third and 2012 Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska is the fourt seed.

For the 12th straight year the United States Tennis Assn. has followed the WTA’s rankings in assigning the seeds.

Other seeded Americans include No. 16 Sloane Stephens and No. 24 Jamie Hampton.

Since winning Wimbledon in 2012 the 31-year-old Williams has a 77-4 record that includes an Olympic singles gold medal and the U.S. Open, her 17th singles Grand Slam title.

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