New York: Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was seeded No 1 at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time on Tuesday, receiving the top spot at the US Open because Serena Williams pulled out with a foot injury.
Wozniacki, ranked No 2 behind Williams by the WTA, was the runner-up at Flushing Meadows last year and is the first woman since 2003 to be seeded No 1 at the US Open without already having won a major championship.
Defending champion Kim Clijsters was seeded No 2 by the US Tennis Association, which stuck strictly to the rankings in determining the seedings.
Venus Williams, the 2000-01 US Open champion, is No 3, followed by 2008 runner-up Jelena Jankovic and French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur.
Two other past US Open champions who were seeded are No 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No 14 Maria Sharapova.
Serena Williams, Venus' younger sister, withdrew last week, saying she was recovering from surgery to repair cuts on her right foot.
The men's seedings were announced on Monday, with Rafael Nadal at No 1, and Roger Federer at No 2. The 2009 men's champion, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, withdrew on Saturday because he wasn't ready to compete after having an operation on his right wrist in May.
The announcement of the women's seedings was delayed a day because Sunday's final at the Rogers Cup in Montreal was rained out.
Meanwhile, Indian star Sania Mirza has been drawn against Russian Ksenia Lykina as her first round opponent. This is for the first time ever since her breakthrough year in 2005 that Sania has to go through the qualifiers to play in a Grand Slam. The singles ranking of Sania has dipped to 160 as she is struggling with form and a recurring wrist injury.
Mirza, who got married to Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malek amid much fanfare earlier this year, made a desperate attempt to improve her ranking by playing a few ITF tournaments but her efforts did not meet much success.
Sania and Ksenia, ranked 236 in the WTA chart, have never played against each other. The Indian's best performance at a Grand Slam came in 2005 at US Open when she made the pre-quarterfinals.
She is grappling with injuries since 2008 and her rankings plummeted in the last two years. Meanwhile, Somdev Devvarman is all set to make a direct entry into the men's singles draw of the US Open after breaking into the top-100.
