According to The Times, the Russian will be given a space at the tournament, being held at the Edgbaston Priory Club between June 17 and 25, as the organisers, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), will give her one of the four wildcard slots available.

She has previously won the grass court tournament on two occasions in 2004 and 2005 and was also a finalist in 2007 and 2010.

It comes after Sharapova's current ranking of 258th in the world was too low for automatic qualification as the deadline passed yesterday.

The 30-year-old who won the Wimbledon women's singles title in 2004 and the Olympic silver medal at London 2012 made a much criticised return to competitive action last month after serving a 15-month suspension for testing positive for meldonium.

When asked by insidethegames, LTA officials did not confirm if Sharapova would be receiving a wildcard, saying a final decision has not been made yet.

"We are currently in the process of deciding which players will receive wildcards for our summer season grass court tournaments," an LTA statement said.

"It's a carefully considered process which happens at this time every year.

"We will announce the names of wildcard recipients in due course, before the start of each tournament."

Sharapova initially received a two-year ban following the test taken at the 2016 Australian Open in Melbourne, but this was reduced following a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In their ruling, CAS said she had not intentionally doped.

Sharapova said she had not realised the drug had been placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list before the Australian Open.

However, several of her rivals in the tennis world have been heavily critical of her return, including Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, who defeated Sharapova yesterday at the Madrid Open.