David Nalbandian will not be returning to Queen’s Club for this year’s AEGON Championships.
Last year’s final between the Argentinian and Marin Cilic became one of the most infamous matches in recent years after Nalbandian kicked an advertising board into a line judge’s leg and was disqualified.
The incident was the subject of a police investigation while Nalbandian lost more than £40,000 in fines and forfeited prize money.
The former Wimbledon finalist insisted he did want to return this year, while tournament director Chris Kermode forgave Nalbandian for his indiscretion.
But, with his ranking down at 129, the 31-year-old is not ranked highly enough to gain automatic entry to the tournament and he has not entered as an alternate.
Croatian Cilic, who had been trailing by a set at the time, does return along with four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt and rising stars Grigor Dimitrov and Bernard Tomic.
Lukas Rosol, who famously beat Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon last year and won his first ATP World Tour title in Bucharest last week, will make his second appearance at Queen’s Club.
Two-time champion Andy Murray had already been confirmed as heading the field for the June 10-16 tournament, which also features top-10 stars Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin Del Potro.
Kermode said: “We have a strong sense of our history and celebrate our past champions at the AEGON Championships so it’s great to see Marin Cilic, Lleyton Hewitt and (2010 champion) Sam Querrey returning.
“At the same time, it’s particularly exciting to see young stars coming through.
“We all remember how a 17-year-old Boris Becker won the first title of his career at The Queen’s Club in 1985, and then went on to win Wimbledon two weeks later, and we can’t wait to see Dimitrov and Tomic in action this year.”
