Nadal out of Queen’s as he recovers from clay season before Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Fever-tree Championships at Queen’s Club, three days after winning his 11th French Open title.

It is the third consecutive year the world No 1 has entered the tournament, which begins on Monday, only to pull out before the start. Nadal said: “Queen’s is a great event, I have happy memories of winning the title in 2008 and I wanted to come back this year. But it has been a very long clay-court season with great results.

“I would like to say sorry to the tournament organisers and most of all to the fans that were hoping to see me play, but I have spoken to my doctors and I need to listen to what my body is telling me.”

Nadal last played at Queen’s Club in 2015 and will once again go into Wimbledon without any official grasscourt matches. He has struggled at SW19 in recent years, failing to progress beyond the fourth round since his last final appearance in 2011. Queen’s organisers announced the strongest lineup in the tournament’s history and will now wait to hear whether Andy Murray will follownada lin with drawing. the two-time wimbledon champion is expected to decide in the next couple of days whether to make his comeback from hip surgery in West Kensington.

Roger Federer, meanwhile, returned from his clay-court hiatus with a three-set victory over Mischa Zverev at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.

The 36-year-old was playing his first match since losing to Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round of the Miami Open in March having chosen to skip the entire clay stretch for the second successive season.

Federer looked rusty and dropped the first set to German serve-volleyer Zverev but recovered to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Federer needs to reach the final if he is to retake the world No 1 spot from Nadal.