PARIS — World No. 1 Rafa Nadal will warm up for next month's Wimbledon Championships by playing two exhibition matches at the Aspall Tennis Classic in Hurlingham this week.

The Spaniard, who reclaimed the top spot in the ATP rankings after Roger Federer lost to Borna Coric in the Halle Open final on Sunday, withdrew from the Queen's Club event earlier this month to recover after winning his 11th French Open title.

The 32-year-old, who was ousted in the fourth round at the All England Club last year, will play ATP NextGen Finals winner Chung Hyeon on Wednesday and Frenchman Lucas Pouille, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2016, on Friday.

Nadal, a 17-times grand slam winner, will be gunning for his third title at Wimbledon, which kicks off on July 2, after winning the tournament in 2008 and 2010.

Nadal had slipped down to number two despite his 11th French Open success after Federer, 36, took the Stuttgart Cup to bag the No. 1 ranking for the sixth time in his career and bask in a record 310th week at the summit.

But his Halle loss to Coric cost him not only a 99th career title but his pole position as Nadal moved back above him by 50 points as the countdown to Wimbledon nears its end. Coric's win lifted him 13 places meanwhile to a career-high 21st.

Queen's Club champion Marin Cilic moved up a spot to fifth after his win over Novak Djokovic, who moves back into the top 20.

Halep still leads rankings

while Mertens moves up

With Wimbledon looming, Simona Halep, who was not in action last week, retained her comfortable lead the WTA rankings ahead of Carolina Wozniacki, who also did not play.

There was no change in the top 10 as No. 3 Garbine Muguruza and No. 7 Karolina Pliskova made first round exits in Birmingham, while No. 5 Elina Svitolina only reached the last eight.

Petra Kvitova gained no points for winning the event because she was the defending champion. Lower down the list Elise Mertens jumps two places to No. 15 despite also making a first-round exit in the Birmingham singles. — Agencies