Azarenka named top seed
August 22, 2012
FLUSHING, N.Y. — The USTA announced today that world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus has been named the top seed in women’s singles at the 2012 US Open. The 2012 US Open will be played August 27 – September 9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. The US Open Women’s Singles Championship is presented by JPMorgan Chase.
Following Azarenka, the 2012 Australian Open champion, will be No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, the 2012 Wimbledon runner-up, and No. 3 seed Maria Sharapova of Russia, whose 2012 French Open title completed a career Grand Slam. Three-time US Open champion Serena Williams, the 2012 Wimbledon champion, is the No. 4 seed after winning singles and doubles gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London.
This year, the US Open followed the WTA rankings released Monday to determine the women’s singles seeds. This is the 11th consecutive year that the US Open has seeded 32 players in both singles events.
Australia’s Samantha Stosur will defend her 2011 US Open title as the No. 7 seed. Three-time US Open champion Kim Clijsters of Belgium, who has won 21 straight US Open matches, is the No. 23 seed in her final US Open appearance. Two-time US Open champion Venus Williams is the only former US Open champion unseeded in this field.
After Williams, the remaining seeded Americans are No. 21 seed Christina McHale and No. 32 seed Varvara Lepchenko.
The singles draws for the 2012 US Open will be revealed live during an official draw ceremony on Thursday, August 23, at 12 p.m. ET at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The draw will be streamed live on USOpen.org. Stosur and Novak Djokovic, the defending US Open champions, will make an appearance at the ceremony.