June 22, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429

LONDON, June 21: For Venus Williams, returning to Wimbledon as defending champion allows her to enjoy a luxury she cannot get at any other tournament.

Having chosen a career in which her routine is set on a day-to-day basis by various tournament officials, she particularly savours the tradition at the All England Club where the defending women’s champion opens Centre Court proceedings on the first Tuesday of the tournament.

As a result, the moment she picked up her fourth Wimbledon crown on July 7, 2007, she was already looking forward to playing her next match at the grasscourt Grand Slam on June 24, 2008 at 1200 GMT.

“Coming out as defending champion is definitely more special here because I’m just excited to be playing on Tuesday and taking it from there,” the American said in an interview on Friday.

“It’s always fantastic as usually everything’s up in the air and (I’m) waiting to see when I will play and when they will put out the schedule so that I know when to practice and so on.

Venus returns to her favourite stomping ground this year determined to add a fifth Wimbledon title to her collection.

Twelve months ago, the American broke her own record of being the lowest seed to win the women’s title in London. When she captured the title in 2005, she was seeded 14th. Last year she was an even more of a longshot for the title as the 23rd seed.

While this year she cannot improve on that mark as she is ranked seventh on the WTA Tour rankings, she is eager to join a select handful of players — including Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf — who have won at least five singles titles at the citadel of grasscourt tennis.—Reuters