Wimbledon: Venus chasing number one spot

Venus Williams begins her quest to hold on to her Wimbledon title, knowing that a repeat triumph will be enough to make her officially the world's best female tennis player.

The unexpected boost for Williams is that if she can reclaim the crown she won by beating Lindsay Davenport she will surpass Martina Hingis and become world number one.

She kicks off the Centre Court programme against Shinobu Asagoe of Japan.

Davenport, fresh from her victory at Eastbourne last week, meets Martina Sucha of Slovakia.

Williams' chance has come around following Hingis' extraordinary first-round defeat to Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual.

French Open runner-up Kim Clijsters, the seventh seed, starts against Guilia Casoni hoping to emulate the opening-day performance of her Belgian compatriot Justine Henin, who blazed into the second round with a 6-1 6-0 win over Sarah Pitkowski.

And Dokic, seeded 14 this year, gets her campaign under way against Rossana de los Rios of Paraguay.