{blackbabes} Serena poised to pounce in top half

Caroline Wozniacki, Li Na and Victoria Azarenka are among the top seeds who could find three-time champion Serena Williams blocking the way to the final at the US Open.

Fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus could come across the 28th-seeded Williams in the third round according to the draw made on Thursday for the final Grand Slam tournament of the season.

World number one and top seed Wozniacki of Denmark and sixth-seeded French Open champion Li of China are also in the same half of the draw as Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam champion whose world ranking has slipped after health concerns kept her off the court for almost a year.

Williams returned to the tour in June and won two of her first four tournaments, displaying intimidating hardcourt form in lifting trophies at Stanford and Toronto.

Despite her history of success at Flushing Meadows, organizers opted to seed her according to her ranking.

The bottom half of the draw, anchored by second-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, also includes Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the fifth seed from the Czech Republic, and fourth-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova, who could reprise their Wimbledon final in the quarter-finals.

If both stay the course, eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France and Zvonareva could meet in the quarters.

Venus Williams, a two-time US Open champion, is unseeded in the bottom half of the draw. She could meet Wimbledon semi-finalist Sabine Lisicki of Germany, the 22nd seed, in the second round, and could conceivably face her sister, Serena, in the final.