Has the All England Club wronged the defending Wimbledon champion?

The grandest of slams announced its seeds yesterday, and Venus Williams came in at no. 7. For Williams, it was a bump up from her world ranking of no. 12, but perhaps not generous enough considering she has played in five of the last six Wimbledon finals and won three of them. Amelie Mauresmo, ranked no.1, took the top spot, followed by Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne, and Maria Sharapova.

One can make an argument for those four running in front of Williams. But Nadia Petrova and Svetlana Kuznetsova? They are both inconsistent players, and neither of them has gone further than the quarterfinals.

Former pro Mary Carillo, now a television announcer, said the decision made no sense. “Anyone who has won Wimbledon three times and is the defending champion, you give her the no. 1 seed.”

Wimbledon is the only tournament that seeds players as it sees fit. For the men, it relies on a formula. It takes a player’s ranking points, adds the number of points earned on grass events in the last year, and adds 75% of points earned at the player’s best grass event in the year before (hence Rafael Nadal remains the second seed, owing to his enormous amount of ranking points; Andy Roddick jumped two spots to no. 3).

For the women, “the seeding order will follow the ranking list, except where in the opinion of the [seeding] Committee, the grass court credentials of a particular player necessitates a change in the interest of achieving a balanced draw.”

Translation: it’s whim.

No matter for Venus. When she and her colleagues next week take the most difficult turn in tennis – sweeping aside more than a month of clay-court slides and topspin rallies for a few weeks of low bounces, curt points, and lengthy rain delays – she’ll be among the favorites.

Three no-shows are significant: Serena Williams remains sidelined with a knee injury, Lindsay Davenport withdrew this week because of a back injury, and Mary Pierce, a quarterfinalist last year, is out with an injured foot. Their absences ought to open this year’s draw to a number of women.

Can Venus repeat? Her agility, powerful serve, and skill at the net all play in her favor. No one in the draw attacks as well as Venus, no one has her wingspan or her quickness at the net. Perhaps most important, few can play defense as well as she did last year, when she ran Sharapova off Centre Court in the semifinals and saved a match point against Davenport.

A title defense would place Williams in select company. Ten women have won four or more Wimbledon titles, and only three have done so in the Open Era. If Williams captures her fourth, she would move past Chris Evert and find herself within striking distance of three legends of Open Era Wimbledon: Martina Navratilova (nine titles), Steffi Graf (seven), and Billie Jean King (six).

As he celebrated his daughter’s title last year with a cigarette, Richard Williams remarked on what his daughter, now 26, must do to earn a place among the game’s greats.

“I think she’ll need at least two more [majors],” he said. “And I think she can for one reason, and that’s speed. The only thing she needs to do is get her technique together.”

At the French Open this year, Williams’s speed and strategy – rushing the net and pressuring her opponents – were mostly on the mark, though her technique was far from it. As this tournament progresses, she cannot afford to make errors galore as she did in a disheartening loss to 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova at Roland Garros.

As for the other favorites, Sharapova is still in search of her second major, and her semifinal loss at the DFS Classic in Birmingham, England, last week, to Jamea Jackson, could not have done much for her confidence. Sharapova’s undeniable moxie has earned her the reputation as a fearsome competitor in tense moments, but that image took a hit against Jackson and at the French Open this month, when she blew a 5-1 lead in the third set against Dinara Safina.

Henin-Hardenne, who defended her French Open title earlier this month, has had the best season so far, having reached the final of both majors (she retired at the Australian Open because of an upset stomach). Say what you will of the Belgian’s demeanor and sometimes cold remarks, her commitment to excellence in technique and fitness cannot be doubted. No woman produces more first-rate tennis from such a slight frame, and she literally makes herself sick over her performances, sleeping less as tournaments go on and taxing her body to the point of injury. If she is not petered out from Paris, she might make a deep run.

Another Belgian, Clijsters, played so-so in a fourth-round loss to Davenport last year, and she showed little resolve in the French Open semifinals against Henin-Hardenne. Mauresmo was first rate on grass in 2005, nearly defeating Davenport in the semifinals. Her versatile game suits the lawns as well as any, though it remains to be seen if her confidence suffered a serious blow from the pounding Vaidisova gave her in Paris.

Vaidisova’s fine run at the French Open will bring her a lot of attention at Wimbledon, and she could do well with her booming serve and forehand. Still, the young Czech makes lots of mistakes. It wouldn’t be surprising if she reached the fourth round or even the quarterfinals, but anything more would mean she has developed sooner than expected.

A few wild cards: Martina Hingis, Anna-Lena Groenefeld, and Alicia Molik.

The Swiss Miss takes her revival tour to Wimbledon, where she won in 1997. The more big hitters she can avoid, the better. Groenefeld is coming off her best performance at a Grand Slam (quarterfinals at the French Open) and plays a stylish brand of tennis that perfectly suits grass. Molik is the wildest of them all. After winning two rounds in Paris despite limited play in the last year, she has received an invite into the draw.

Molik was ranked no.8 in the world before she left the tour with an inner ear virus that she feared might end her career. At her best, the 25-year-old Australian has one of the most imposing serves in the game, as well as a strong forehand. She’s not afraid to volley, either. Can she win? It’s unlikely, but then again, the seeds don’t mean much anyway.

tperrotta@nysun.com