Serena Williams seeded 28th for US Open despite recent form

Serena Williams won the US Open title in 1999, 2002 and 2008

Three-time former champion Serena Williams has been named 28th seed for the US Open in New York.

Williams won recent tournaments in Toronto and Stanford as she continued her return from a long injury lay-off.

Caroline Wozniacki is top seed for the tournament that starts on 29 August.

Novak Djokovic tops the men's seedings, Britain's Andy Murray is seeded fourth, champion Rafael Nadal second and five-time winner Roger Federer third.

As with the women's draw, the tournament organisers decided to followed the world rankings - Williams has been bumped up a place because defending champion Kim Clijsters has withdrawn with a stomach muscle injury.

Serbia's Djokovic has lost just two of his 59 matches this season, the latest coming when he withdrew from his Western & Southern Open final against Murray in Cincinnati when trailing 6-4 3-0.

He has won nine titles along the way and will have high hopes of adding to his three Grand Slam titles to date with his first Flushing Meadows crown, having been runner-up to Nadal last year and Federer in 2007.

Mardy Fish is the highest-seeded home player at number eight, with Andy Roddick at 21 and John Isner 28.

After losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon to Marion Bartoli, Williams slumped to 175 in the world rankings, her lowest position since 1997.

The 29-year-old was elevated to seventh seed at Wimbledon despite it being only her second tournament after she took time off to recover from a foot injury and and life-threatening blood clots which she said left her on her 'death bed'.

But US Open tournament director Jim Curley said, unlike Wimbledon, it had "decided to maintain the objective criteria in place to determine the women's singles seeds".

Wozniacki heads the seeds, with the Dane seeking her first Grand Slam title. She was top seed in 2010, but lost to Vera Zvonareva in the semi-finals.

Zvonareva is seeded second, with former US Open champion Maria Sharapova third - Sharapova won the title in Cincinnati on Sunday and is close to recapturing the form that took her to the title at Flushing Meadows in 2006.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is the fifth seed, with current French Open champion Li Na seeded sixth.

Britain's top three women players - Elena Baltacha, Anne Keothavong and Heather Watson have all gained direct entry to the draw, while Naomi Broady and Laura Robson will compete in the qualifiers.