Nadal to skip Queen's next year due to tax laws

Shanghai: Rafael Nadal will not play the traditional Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's Club next year, citing stringent British tax laws.

Nadal said on Thursday that he can "lose money" when he plays at a tournament in Britain because of the tax laws.

"The tax regime from UK is complicating a lot of things because to go and play Queen's, the problem is not (to) win, the problem is I can lose money because I go there, I play for one week (and) they take out money from my sponsors. That's a lot," the No. 2-ranked Spaniard said on Thursday.

"I'm going to play Wimbledon, I'm going to play in the World Tour Finals. So there is a lot of weeks, a lot of tax. (It is) more and more complicated to play in the UK."

Instead of playing at Queen's next year, Nadal decided to accept an invitation to enter the grass-court tournament held the same week in Halle, Germany.

Nadal has played at Queen's in five of the past six years, winning in 2008. He missed the 2009 tournament because of a knee injury.

"Queen's is a fantastic tournament but is not the only one that week," Nadal said after his third-round loss to Florian Mayer at the Shanghai Masters. "I didn't play in Germany for the last three years. I like to play in all the tournaments when they really want me."

Overseas athletes are taxed on prize money and appearance fees in Britain, and also on a portion of their worldwide endorsement earnings. The law, which also affects musicians and actors, was implemented after Britain's tax authority won a landmark case against Andre Agassi in 2006.

The American tennis player was ordered to pay tax on a portion of the money paid to him by Nike and Head since he endorsed their products at Wimbledon and other events in Britain.

Olympic sprinting champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica does not compete in Britain because of the law.