Maria Sharapova will be offered a wildcard into next month’s Aegon Classic in Birmingham.
Sources told BBC Sport that preliminary discussions between Sharapova’s team and the Lawn Tennis Association are under way.
The move has the blessing of the LTA’s outgoing chief executive Michael Downey.
Sharapova has not played a Wimbledon warm-up event since she reached the final in Birmingham in 2010.
Her presence in the field is likely to boost ticket sales at an event that is perpetually overshadowed by the ATP tournament at The Queen’s Club in the same week. Tickets are still available for all days of the tournament which runs from 19-25 June.
The LTA will expect criticism for their decision, which appears to have been made purely on commercial grounds. Andy Murray and Heather Watson are just two players who have expressed their uneasiness about the quantity of wildcards being offered to Sharapova since she returned from a 15-month ban for taking meldonium.
Watson, who will receive a wildcard of her own into the Birmingham draw, said during March’s Miami Open that from “a moral standpoint you should have to work your way back up if you’ve been on a ban”.
There is unlikely to be swift confirmation that Sharapova will play in Birmingham, where she won the title in both 2004 and 2005. That is because all eyes are currently on Roland Garros, which will announce next Tuesday whether they are to offer Sharapova a wildcard for either qualifying or the main draw of the French Open.
That, in turn, will have implications for how much Sharapova wishes to play on the grass. The five-time Grand Slam champion has already been offered a wildcard into the event in the Dutch town of Rosmalen in the week after the French Open.
Sharapova’s participation in the rival Nottingham tournament should not be completely ruled out if she loses early in Paris, or a French Open invitation fails to materialise.
The All England Club will not meet to finalise their wildcards until 20 June, but despite her second-round defeat to Eugenie Bouchard in Madrid, Sharapova can still gain direct entry into Wimbledon by reaching the semi-finals in Rome next week.
Johanna Konta, Garbine Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep headline the entry list in Birmingham, which will be confirmed later this week.
“We are currently in the process of deciding which players will receive wildcards for our summer season grass court tournaments” an LTA spokesman told the BBC.
“It’s a carefully considered process which happens at this time every year. We will announce the names of wild card recipients in due course, before the start of each tournament.”
Improve your children’s tennis skills with these drills used by Andy Murray as part of the LTA’s Tennis for Kids campaign.
| Aegon Championships, Queen’s Club |
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| Date: 19-25 June – comprehensive live coverage across BBC television, radio and online |
World number one Andy Murray will defend his title at next month’s Aegon Championships as six of world’s top 10 men descend on Queen’s Club in London.
The Briton has won the traditional Wimbledon warm-up event five times.
The tournament will also feature last year’s beaten finalist Milos Raonic, 2012 champion Marin Cilic and 2008 winner Rafael Nadal.
Stan Wawrinka and David Goffin are also scheduled to play in the event which takes place from 19-25 June.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Nick Kyrgios and Juan Martin del Potro will also take part.
Tournament director Stephen Farrow said: “The player entry list for the Aegon Championships is strong every year and we already knew we were in for a great line-up, but with Cilic and Goffin adding their names to make it six of the world’s top 10, this is going to be the best yet.”
Andy Murray v Marius Copil in the Madrid Open round of 32 will be live on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra on Tuesday from 15:00 BST.
Eugenie Bouchard says the support she received off the court inspired her to victory over Maria Sharapova – an opponent she called a “cheat” – at the Madrid Open.
View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups Tuesday at the Mutua Madrid Open & vote for who you think will win!
A Zverev v Verdasco | M Zverev v Coric | Robredo v Almagro
View Tuesday schedule, featuring top seed Andy Murray against Marius Copil, and check back later for preview notes.
In an all-French battle, Gilles Simon saved two match points to win a back-and-forth contest against Gael Monfils 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(0) on Monday at the Mutua Madrid Open. Simon erased the match points while serving at 2-5 in the third set.
The 32-year-old Simon will next meet Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who defeated #NextGenATP American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 6-4, 6-4 in 74 minutes. Simon and Lopez have split their previous four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, but this will be their first encounter on clay.
Lopez, 35, is the only player to have appeared in all 16 editions of his hometown ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament and is a four-time quarter-finalist in Madrid.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to work for it but ultimately prevailed in a marathon first-round match against Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 that lasted two hours and 50 minutes. Tsonga saved all six break points and converted his only break point against Kuznetsov in the third set.
The 10th-seeded Frenchman improved to 3-0 against Kuznetsov in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The win is also Tsonga’s first since 26 February, when he captured the Marseille crown, and his first since he welcomed his son Shugar on 18 March.
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The 32 year old will meet Spaniard David Ferrer in the second round. Ferrer came back from a set and 1-3 down to prevail against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 in two hours and 31 minutes. The 35-year-old Ferrer is now one match win away from celebrating his 700th match win.
“I’m very proud of my career. But that figure is a very big figure. It’s something quite big to achieve, very difficult to achieve for a tennis player,” Ferrer said. “Fortunately, I’ve been lucky. I have had a long career. I still have a lot of time ahead of me. I’ve won a lot of matches and that makes me very happy. I’ve been very happy playing tennis.”
Revisit the week that was on the ATP Challenger Tour as we applaud the achievements of those on the rise and look ahead to who’s in action in the week to come
LOOK BACK
St. Joseph’s/ Candler Savannah Challenger (Georgia, U.S.A): Tennys Sandgren capped a memorable week with his third ATP Challenger Tour title. The American ousted second seed Henri Laaksonen and countryman Tommy Paul in third set tie-breaks en route to the final. On Sunday he defeated Joao Pedro Sorgi, a Challenger final debutant, with a commanding 6-4, 6-3 performance.
Sandgren, who also won the Tempe, U.S.A, Challenger in February, rises up 20 positions to a career-high No. 114 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 25 year old has enjoyed a stellar four weeks on the clay, including a run to the final at the $100,000 Challenger event in Sarasota (l. Tiafoe). As a reward, Sandgren clinched the USTA’s Roland Garros wild card and will feature in his first Grand Slam main draw later this month.
Prosperita Open 2017 (Ostrava, Czech Republic): Stefano Travaglia lifted a maiden ATP Challenger Tour title with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 triumph over fellow Italian Marco Cecchinato. A year ago Travaglia was outside the Top 500 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but has risen to a career-high No. 165. The 25 year old defied his ranking to defeat fifth seed Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, fourth seed Roberto Carballes Baena and second seed Adam Pavlasek to become the seventh first-time title winner of 2017.
Gimcheon Challenger (Gimcheon, South Korea): There was another Italian success after Thomas Fabbiano lifted his fourth Challenger title with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Teymuraz Gabashvili. The Rome resident, champion in Quanzhou, China, in March, is the seventh player to win multiple titles this campaign and rises 27 positions to World No. 133.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Tennys Sandgren: “My game has pretty much stayed the same, but mentally I’ve made some adjustments, so I’m always giving myself a chance by competing hard,” said the Savannah champion. “I was relaxed going into the final, I had seen every aspect of tennis possible this week, I’ve had some of the craziest matches of my career back-to-back here this week. It’s great I could pull these victories out and gain this experience. It’s only going to serve me well at the French Open.”
A LOOK AHEAD
Four tournaments fill a busy billing this week. Malek Jaziri tops the field at the €127,000 Challenger event in Aix en Provence, France. The fourth edition of the clay tournament features a host of #NextGenATP players, with Sarasota champion Frances Tiafoe leading the charge.
Also on the red clay, the €64,000 Challenger in Rome welcomes Jiri Vesely as top seed. Alexander Bublik and Michael Mmoh lead the #NextGenATP contingent alongside wild cards for Stefanos Tsitsipas and Italian Gianluigi Quinzi.
World No. 56 Yen-Hsun Lu is the top-ranked player at the $100,000 hard court Challenger event in Seoul, South Korea. Meanwhile, two-time champion (2013, 2015) Teymuraz Gabashvili joins a strong field at the $75,000 tournament in Karshi, Uzbekistan.
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ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: The ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.
