Roger Federer's withdrawal as top seed for the Gerry Weber Open in Halle is by no means as significant as his chief rival Rafael Nadal's decision to pull out of the other main Wimbledon warm-up tournament, the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club.
With Nadal racing against time to recover from injuries to both knees in the hope of making a successful defence to his Wimbledon title, Federer has all the time in the world to take it easy after winning his record-equalling 14th grand slam title in Paris on Sunday.
It is not the first time Federer has let down his German hosts.
He took a similar decision two years ago after failing narrowly to depose Nadal as French Open champion and that had little effect on his preparations for Wimbledon which he went on to win for the fifth successive year that time.
The Swiss is physically and mentally drained again after his Roland Garros exploits - this time as a triumphant winner of the one major title to have eluded him - and thought it best to take an extra week's rest before embarking on another grass court campaign. He apologised to the fans in Halle, saying: "I only hope they will understand that I still feel emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted by the incredible events of the past few days."
In yesterday's action in Halle, the German player Mischa Zverev rallied to upset the fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals of the event.
Also out was the German eighth seed Rainer Schuettler, who was knocked out by his unseeded compatriot Benjamin Becker 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
At the Aegon Championship in London, Xavier Malisse received a bye through to the third round after his scheduled Russian opponent Marat Safin pulled out with a back injury.
The Croatian No 5 seed Marin Cilic was beaten 7-6, 7-6 in yesterday's second round by France's Nicolas Mahut in a match that had no breaks of serve.
wjohnson@thenational.ae
More on Quran memorisation:
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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