Williams, who has won Wimbledon six times, has failed at the last hurdle in her last two major tournaments, enduring surprise defeats at the Australian and French Open finals this year.

The world number one’s conqueror at Roland Garros, Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, is seeded second with Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, the 2012 Wimbledon runner-up, named as the third seed.

Johanna Konta is the first British female to be seeded at Wimbledon since Jo Durie in 1984.

The 25-year-old’s ranking has shot up from 146th to 18th and she was named as the 17th seed following her shock run to the Australian Open semi-finals in January.

Seedings at Wimbledon, which starts on Monday, are determined using a combination of a player’s ranking points and their results in grass-court matches.