New York, USA, 23 August 2012 | AP

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka will be seeded No.1 at next week’s US Open, with 2006 champion Maria Sharapova at No.3 and three-time winner Serena Williams at No.4.

The US Tennis Association announced the seedings on Wednesday, strictly following this week’s WTA rankings.

Azarenka, who won the Australian Open in January, is followed by No.2 Agnieszka Radwanska, the runner-up to Williams at Wimbledon last month.

Defending US Open champion Sam Stosur is seeded seventh, and three-time winner Kim Clijsters is No.23.

Venus Williams, who won the Open in 2000 and 2001, is ranked 47th and is unseeded.

The top 32 seeds for the 2012 US Open are as follows:

1.   Victoria Azarenka, Belarus

2.   Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland

3.   Maria Sharapova, Russia

4.   Serena Williams, United States

5.   Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic

6.   Angelique Kerber, Germany

7.   Samantha Stosur, Australia

8.   Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark

9.   Li Na, China

10.  Sara Errani, Italy

11.  Marion Bartoli, France

12.  Ana Ivanovic, Serbia

13.  Dominika Cibulkova, Slovakia

14.  Maria Kirilenko, Russia

15.  Lucie Safarova, Czech Republic

16.  Sabine Lisicki, Germany

17.  Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia

18.  Julia Goerges, Germany

19.  Nadia Petrova, Russia

20.  Roberta Vinci, Italy

21.  Christina McHale, United States

22.  Francesca Schiavone, Italy

23.  Kim Clijsters, Belgium

24.  Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic

25.  Yanina Wickmayer, Belgium

26.  Monica Niculescu, Romania

27.  Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spain

28.  Petra Cetkovska, Czech Republic

29.  Jie Zheng, China

30.  Tamira Paszek, Austria

31.  Jelena Jankovic, Serbia

32.  Varvara Lepchenko, United States