Out of sorts Novak Djokovic to warm-up for Wimbledon at Eastbourne

London: Three-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic is to play at the ATP tournament in Eastbourne, southern England, in preparation for the grass-court Grand Slam, it was announced Tuesday.

It will be the first time the struggling Djokovic has played a grass-court event between the French Open and Wimbledon since 2010.

The 30-year-old Serb saw his French Open title defence come to a surprise halt with a straight sets quarter-final loss to the up-and-coming Dominic Thiem on the clay courts of Roland Garros in Paris earlier this month.

Now, following what was his quickest exit from the French Open in seven years, 12-time Grand Slam champion is to play Eastbourne, which runs from June 23-July 1 after accepting a main draw wildcard.

"This will be my first trip to Eastbourne, I have heard great things about the tournament," said 12-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic in a statement. "I am looking forward to fine tuning my grass court game there ahead of Wimbledon."

World number four Djokovic comes into the event will be the tournament`s top seed ahead of number two Gael Monfils and number three John Isner.

Originally a women`s only event, Eastbourne has been expanded to include men`s tennis as well and tournament director Gavin Fletcher said: "The quality of the men`s and women`s entries is already incredibly high, and the addition of Novak will take the event to an even higher level."

The WTA side of the tournament features seven of the world`s top 10 female players including world number one Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova (number three), 2016 champion Dominika Cibulkova (number six), 2009 champion Caroline Wozniacki (number eight), and Britain`s world number seven Johanna Konta.