Wimbledon is her garden

WIMBLEDON, England -- Greetings from the 122nd Wimbledon, where we have Lindsay Davenport pushing a stroller through Wimbledon Village, 2006 champion Amelie Mauresmo seeded 29th, Justine Henin bygone and Maria Sharapova intimating she’ll wear shorts.

Everything’s in mad flux except Venus Williams, once accused of having too much of a life to continue thriving at tennis but nowadays a paragon of tennis constancy.

“Always extremely excited,” the best female grass-court player of the last 10 years said Sunday. “It’s nice to have the memories from last year all kind of flowing into this year.”

Back in her far-flung sanctuary, back with her rituals such as her restaurant schedule with her sister Serena -- Indian one night, Thai the next, so on -- she’s the defending champion for the fourth time. Rather than the No. 23 seeding she rode from the hinterland to the 2007 championship, she’s No. 7 and a favorite co-favorite.

Asked for a favorite, No. 1-ranked Ana Ivanovic said, “Probably them,” referring to Williams and her sister Serena.

Asked for a favorite, No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova said, “Obviously the Williamses,” and, “Venus, you know, is really tough on grass,” as Sharapova knows from a 6-1, 6-3 mauling in last year’s fourth round.

It’s not the Australian Open, which Venus Williams hasn’t quite won and where she lost a taut quarterfinal to Ivanovic. It’s not the French Open, which she hasn’t quite won and lost a weird third-round match in gathering darkness to Flavia Pennetta.

It’s Venus’ place, the place she took a recuperative title in 2005 while ranked No. 16, the place she took another recuperative title in 2007 while ranked No. 31, the balm for her nadirs, “the ultimate place to play your best tennis,” she said.

So from her 1997 debut at 17 when she “didn’t understand anything” (her words) to a 2000 first title at 20 when, well, “That girl was determined,” Venus Williams arrives at just-turned-28 knowing all the rote questions.

“What is it going to take this year?” she said. “What will I have to do to adjust this year? . . . How is the grass playing? What challenges do I need to overcome?”

To those questions, she brings a defending champion’s lack of neediness. “I think the advantage is that you won last year, and it will never be taken away from you,” she said. “It will always be yours, and you can hug the plate at night if it gets cold.”

For the fourth time in her starry life, she will open in the champion’s spot -- “the ultimate honor in tennis,” she said -- with a draw some might deem favorable. She starts Tuesday against 197th-ranked Naomi Cavaday from Sidcup in southeast London, who did hold two match points in the first round last year against Martina Hingis.

From there, she’d have either 93rd-ranked American Vania King or 92nd-ranked Briton Anne Keothavong, and beyond that, would play someone ranked either 32, 101, 104 or 146, before getting to Jelena Jankovic, the Australian and French Open semifinalist who’d be the underdog here to the lower-seeded Williams.

Any meeting with her No. 6-seeded sister wouldn’t come until a final, and as she reiterates her stated French Open plan of coming to the net more, she finds herself seeking title No. 5 while others fade around her.

“I’m definitely not a crier,” she said. “I’m the most happiest winner ever. But, you know, maybe I would even cry. But that’s so long from now. Two weeks is a long time, especially if it rains.”

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U.S. women

Besides Serena and Venus Williams, other U.S. women’s players include:

wc-wild card; q-qualifier

* Marta Domachowska, Poland, vs. Jill Craybas.

* Bethanie Mattek vs. q-Severine Bremond, France.

* Amelie Mauresmo (29), France, vs. Ashley Harkleroad.

* Julie Ditty vs. Timea Bacsinszky, Switzerland.

* Renata Voracova, Czech Republic, vs. Lindsay Davenport (25).

* Venus Williams (7) vs. wc-Naomi Cavaday, Britain.

* Anne Keothavong, Britain, vs. Vania King.

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Wimbledon: Day 1

Chuck Culpepper sizes up today’s key first-round matches (world rankings in parentheses):

* Serena Williams, United States (6), vs. Kaia Kanepi, Estonia (36): First match, Court No. 1 -- Kanepi just had one heady French Open, becoming the first Estonian in a quarterfinal of a Grand Slam tournament. Kanepi also just had one crummy Wimbledon draw.

* Roger Federer, Switzerland (1), vs. Dominik Hrbaty, Slovakia (272): First match, Centre Court -- The ancient Hrbaty, 30, once No. 12 on earth, actually has a 2-0 record against Federer, and what a shame. Would’ve been fun to spend retirement saying you owned that guy.

* Ana Ivanovic, Serbia (1), vs. Rossana De Los Rios, Paraguay (103): New queen begins reign.

* Novak Djokovic, Serbia (3), vs. Michael Berrer, Germany (83): The three elite Serbs -- Jelena Jankovic is the other -- draw raves for excellence but deserve added bravos for consistency, which has landed this small country 12 of the world’s last 40 Grand Slam semifinal berths, counting both genders. It’s as if they appreciate their opportunities.

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

* Lleyton Hewitt (20), Australia, vs. Robin Haase, Netherlands.

* Frank Dancevic, Canada, vs. David Nalbandian (7), Argentina.

* Marcos Baghdatis (10), Cyprus, vs. Steve Darcis, Belgium.

* Svetlana Kuznetsova (4), Russia, vs. Mathilde Johansson, France.

* Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ukraine, vs. David Ferrer (5), Spain.

* Marion Bartoli (11), France, vs. Sabine Lisicki, Germany.

U.S. MEN IN MAIN DRAW

wc-wild card; q-qualifier

* Robin Soderling, Sweden, vs. q-Kevin Kim.

* Robby Ginepri vs. Fernando Gonzalez (15), Chile.

* Juan Carlos Ferrero (21), Spain, vs. Sam Querrey.

* Thomas Johansson, Sweden, vs. wc-Vince Spadea.

* Filippo Volandri, Italy, vs. Bobby Reynolds.

* Andy Roddick (6) vs. Eduardo Schwank, Argentina.

* q-Christophe Rochus, Belgium, vs. James Blake (9).

* Wayne Odesnik vs. Jarkko Nieminen (24), Finland.

* q-Jesse Levine vs. Donald Young.

* Richard Gasquet (8), France, vs. Mardy Fish.

* John Isner vs. Ernests Gulbis, Latvia.