Rafael Nadal's route to success at the 2018 Queen's Club Championships just got a whole lot harder

Three of the current top-four ranked men's singles players are scheduled to compete at the Queen's Club Championships this year, with Rafael Nadal set to be joined by fellow former winners Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov for the Wimbledon warm-up event in June.

Tournament organisers made the announcement shortly before tickets went on sale at 10.00am GMT on Tuesday morning [6 March], with 2012 champion Cilic - presently third in the ATP rankings after final appearances at Wimbledon and the Australian Open - returning after spurning a match point to lose last year's final to unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in a final-set tiebreak.

"The Queen's Club Championships is one of the best tournaments that we play, I am proud to have won it and I want to win it again," he said.

"I have been playing the event since I was very young and they even gave me a wild card in my first year, so it has always been a special place for me."

Like Cilic, fourth-ranked 2017 ATP World Tour Finals champion Dimitrov also received a wild card from Queen's Club during his formative years on tour.

However, he saved a championship point to overcome Lopez 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (8-6) and claimed his fourth career title in 2014.

"The Queen's Club Championships is one of my favourite tournaments, there's so much history at the event and grass is one of the best times of the year," Dimitrov added. "Now that I have the O2 title, I am motivated to do even better at Queen's and Wimbledon this year."

Recently usurped number one Nadal confirmed his return to Queen's last month, 10 years after beating Novak Djokovic to the title in a victory that served as a prelude to his memorable five-set triumph over long-time rival Roger Federer - who typically prepares for Wimbledon in Halle - at SW19. He won his fourth French Open crown shortly before that.

The 16-time Grand Slam winner has entered the event every year since it was upgraded to ATP 500 status in 2015 and was stunned in the first round by Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov that summer before a wrist injury and the need for a pre-Wimbledon rest forced his withdrawal in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Nadal will hope that his latest fitness woes are fully behind him by then, with the Mallorcan last week withdrawing from upcoming Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami due to the recurrence of a right hip problem that forced his retirement in the fifth set of an engrossing Australian Open quarter-final clash with Cilic in January. He had already pulled out of the Mexican Open in Acapulco after aggravating the injury.

Andy Murray should also feature at Queen's after it was reported last week that he was planning to return to the practice court towards the end of March. The 30-year-old, who has not played a competitive match since losing to Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year and undergoing hip surgery in January, won a record fifth title in 2016 and later signed a lucrative deal with the LTA to compete in the event for the remainder of his career.

On his last appearance at Queen's, Murray was eliminated in the first round by world number 90 Jordan Thompson.