I suspect it also depends on how she performs over the next few weeks. If she gets back into the top 100 all be it after the closing date for the grass tournaments then they probably feel it is easier to justify giving her a WC, and yes would give Nottingham a huge publicity boost and presumably add significantly to spectator numbers.

Bouchard does for Shriekapova in three - just - in the grudge match in Madrid.  Don't particularly like Bouchard & couldn't understand why she described the bloody woman as a "cheater" rather than a "cheat" (language problems? ) more than once, but my dislike of the cheat defies quantification.  I am so pleased at that result & I pray to God that no one will be tempted to hand her an undeserved wild card for any of the grass court tournaments.

There's a particularly scathing article on the Birmingham wild card by Stu Fraser in today's Times in which he concentrates his fire on the LTA under the heading "Sharapova's welcome mat demeans the guardians of integrity".  After noting that the LTA receives a surplus of some £40m annually from Wimbledon & was awarded £8.2m in National Lottery & government funding from Sport England this year, he quotes the LTA's mission ("to get more people playing tennis more often, and part of its role is to govern tennis in Great Britain, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man by acting as guardians to promote and safeguard the integrity of the sport") & comments:

Opening the doors and assisting a player who has just served a 15-month suspension for failing a a drugs test with a wild card is hardly a message of deterrence for younger players in this country who may be tempted in the future by performance-enhancing substances.

The AELTC doesn't escape his ire, either:

When it became apparent that Sharapova would probably require wild cards to compete in tournaments in Britain this summer, there was initial concern within the LTA over how to respond. If Wimbledon were to take a stance and not consider her for one, then it was difficult to see how the LTAS could do anything else.

However, the All England Club has made it clear that Sharapova will be considered at the meeting of its tennis sub-committee on June 20, if her ranking is not high enough to earn her a place in the main draw.

This refusal by Wimbledon officials to take an early stance has relieved the pressure on the LTA, though, who will now welcome Sharapova with open arms and watch the money roll in. So much for the guardians of integrity.