Marcus Willis, one of the breakout players at last year's Wimbledon, was not among the first batch of wildcards for this year's edition of the grass-court Grand Slam announced Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Englishman made a mockery of his world ranking of 772 to come through Wimbledon qualifying in 2016 and then set up a second round meeting with Swiss master Roger Federer on Centre Court – which he lost in straight sets.
But Willis has made only limited progress since and it looks as if he will have to come through qualifying again to earn a place in the main draw.
Officials at the All England Club could add more wildcards ahead of Wimbledon, which starts on July 3, with three spaces left in both the men's and women's main draws.