Sharapova tops Wimbledon women's seeding

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LONDON, June 20 (UPI) -- Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, who won this year's women's titles at the French and Australian opens, are seeded 1-2 for the Wimbledon Championships.

Sharapova completed the career Grand Slam with a win at the recent French Open while Azarenka posted her first major-tournament championship by beating Sharapova in the final at the Australian Open.

Wimbledon officials, who followed the rankings throughout the women's singles seedings, made Sharapova their top seed with Azarenka second. Agnieszka Radwanska is third and defending Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in that final, is No. 4.

Samantha Stosur is seeded fifth, ahead of, in order Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, and Angelique Kerber. Williams owns 13 major tournament titles, including four Wimbledon championships. Stosur is the reigning U.S. Open champion. Neither Wozniacki nor Kerber has won a Grand Slam event.

The second eight in the seedings are, in order: Marion Bartoli, Sara Errani, Li Na, Vera Zvonareva, Dominika Cibulkova, Ana Ivanovic, Sabine Lisicki and Flavia Pennetta.

The Wimbledon pairings are to be announced Friday with first-round play begins Monday. The women's singles final is scheduled for July 7.