Birmingham blow after Sharapova elects to pull out
MARIA SHARAPOVA dealt British tennis an embarrassing blow last night when she pulled out of next week’s Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham. Added to Rafael Nadal’s more expected withdrawal from the Fever Tree Championships at Queen’s Club, it was a double disappointment for the LTA’s pre-Wimbledon events. Last year, the governing body announced it had secured a two-year commitment from the Russian in return for a controversial wildcard as she came back from a doping ban. But Sharapova, who had earlier been announced as playing in the pre-Wimbledon exhibition at Hurlingham, said: ‘I need to take care of my body and make sure I stay healthy — and, sometimes, that means you have to take tough decisions like this one.’ Nadal’s withdrawal was less of a surprise, especially as this is the third straight year he has given Queen’s a miss. He said that 27 matches on clay had taken too much of a toll, with his knees often a problem on grass. ‘I have spoken to my doctors and I need to listen to what my body is telling me,’ said Nadal, who did not suggest his Wimbledon appearance is under threat. Roger Federer played his first match since March 24 yesterday when, after skipping the clay-court season, he defeated Germany’s Mischa Zverev 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. ‘Three months is a long time. It’s longer than the year-end break, so I’m very happy returning on good terms onto the Tour,’ said Federer. Dan Evans scored yet another grass-court win when he beat Sergiy Stakhovsky, the man who famously knocked Federer out of Wimbledon 2013, to make the quarter-finals of the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham. Evans won 7-5, 7-6 and, having started from scratch, is now up to a minimum 468 in the world in his third tournament back following suspension, piling pressure on Wimbledon to give him a wildcard.