Serena Williams may be seeded number two at the US Open but she is the hot favourite to retain her title at Flushing Meadows.

Having already won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year for the 10th and 11th Grand Slam titles of her career, Williams returns to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre looking to equal the woman the venue honours with a 12th.

Williams begins her campaign against wild card and USA Fed Cup player Alexa Glatch with the aim of securing a fourth US Open title having won her first in 1999 at the age of 17.

Her older sister Venus won the next two US Opens before Serena bounced back with a second title in 2002 but her success last year, defeating Jelena Jankovic in the final, crowned a comeback after clawing her way back from an injury-plagued few seasons that saw her drop to number 140 in the world in 2006.

"It's shocking to think that it was 10 years ago," Williams said of her first US Open title.

"I just feel like I am really excited to still be playing top-level tennis 10 years later, which is just really awesome.

"I feel like I am actually playing some of the best tennis I have ever played in my career.

"I'm really happy about that. I thought two years ago that I would still be here and I definitely am."

Assuming she gets past Glatch, the next highest seed in her quarter is Vera Zvonareva, ranked seventh, while the draw has her slated to meet Venus in the semi-finals - if the older Williams can deal with dangerous wild card Kim Clijsters, the 2005 champion now on her way back from retirement having become a mother in 2008.

Serena's resurgence coming into the final grand slam of the year has overshadowed top seed and world number one Dinara Safina of Russia.

Safina began the year being dominated by Serena in the Australian Open final and she is still trying to win her first Grand Slam having also been denied in the French Open decider at Roland Garros by fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The draw has been kinder to Safina than it was to the Williams sisters, at least until the quarter-finals, where she could face either fifth seed Jankovic, who is coming a victory in Cincinnati, or the out-of-sorts Ana Ivanovic.

Fourth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia faces a possible third-round match with 2006 US Open champion Maria Sharapova, seeded 29th after a year hit by injury, while French Open winner Kuznetsova is seeded to meet her in the quarters.

Alas for Safina, merely coming through that tough side of the draw will not be enough to satisfy her detractors.

Only a victory over Serena will truly justify the Russian's status as the world's best.