Serena Williams elevated in US Open seeds

Six-times champion Serena Williams has been seeded 17th in her US Open return after missing last year's event while pregnant.

Williams has been elevated from her world ranking of 26th to one spot above Australia's 18th seed Ashleigh Barty.

Fellow Australian Daria Gavrilova was seeded 25th, with world No.1 Simona Halep named as top seed in New York on Wednesday.

Arina Rodianova, meanwhile, has taken the first step towards joining Barty, Gavrilova, Samantha Stosur and Ajla Tomljanovic in the women's main draw, winning her opening qualifying match at Flushing Meadows.

Rodionova beat Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino 7-5 7-5 to set up a meeting in the next round with American Jessica Pegula while Priscilla Hon bowed out of contention with a 6-0 6-3 defeat to Kathinka von Deichmann.

Destanee Aiava, Olivia Rogowska and Jaimee Fourlis are also contesting qualifying this week and must win three sudden-death matches to make the main draw.

US OPEN WOMEN'S SEEDINGS ANNOUNCED ON WEDNESDAY

1. Simona Halep (ROM)

2. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)

3. Sloane Stephens (USA)

4. Angelique Kerber (GER)

5. Petra Kvitova (CZE)

6. Caroline Garcia (FRA)

7. Elina Svitolina (UKR)

8. Karolina Pliskova (CZE)

9. Julia Goerges (GER)

10. Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)

11. Daria Kasatkina (RUS)

12. Garbine Muguruza (ESP)

13. Kiki Bertens (NED)

14. Madison Keys (USA)

15. Elise Mertens (BEL)

16. Venus Williams (USA)

17. Serena Williams (USA)

18. Ashleigh Barty (AUS)

19. Anastasija Sevastova (LAT)

20. Naomi Osaka (JPN)

21. Mihaela Buzarnescu (ROM)

22. Maria Sharapova (RUS)

23. Barbora Strycova (CZE)

24. CoCo Vandeweghe (USA)

25. Daria Gavrilova (AUS)

26. Aryna Sabalenka (BLR)

27. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)

28. Anett Kontaveit (EST)

29. Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)

30. Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP)

31. Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK)

32. Maria Sakkari (GRE)