Duke star Zion Williamson is suing to enforce his termination of an agreement he signed with a Florida marketing company, maintaining their deal was unlawful under North Carolina law, his attorneys told ESPN.

Williamson is set to become the No. 1 overall pick to the New Orleans Pelicans in next week's NBA draft.

According to the suit filed in federal court in North Carolina on Thursday, Williamson signed a marketing deal with Gina Ford and Prime Sports on April 20, five days after he had declared his intention to enter the NBA draft.

That agreement included a clause that it could not be terminated for five years. Williamson's family told Ford and Prime Sports on May 31 that it was ending the agreement. The agency responded by saying that if Williamson terminated the deal, they would sue for damages in excess of $100 million.

Williamson has since signed with CAA Sports for his contractual and marketing representation.

According to the suit, the agreement was unlawful under North Carolina's Uniform Athlete Agents Act because Prime Sports is not certified by the National Basketball Players Association or a registered athlete agent in North Carolina or Florida. Additionally, the agreement failed to contain, as required under the UAAA, a conspicuous notice in boldface type in capital letters informing the athlete that by signing the agreement he was losing his eligibility to compete as a student-athlete.

Jeffrey S. Klein, an attorney for Williamson, told ESPN in a statement: "Prime Sports Marketing's actions towards Mr. Williamson blatantly violated the North Carolina statute specifically designed to protect student athletes. Mr. Williamson properly exercised his rights under the law to void his business dealings with Prime Sports Marketing. Prime Sports Marketing's continued threats against Mr. Williamson made necessary the filing of this lawsuit."

The suit asks the court to declare the agreement void and bar Prime Sports from acting on Williamson's behalf.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have placed shortstop Corey Seager on the injured list with what an MRI revealed to be between a Grade 1 and a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring.

Seager injured his hamstring while trying to score from second base in Tuesday's ninth inning. The initial fear from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was that the strain was "2-plus," but tests revealed something a little milder.

The 25-year-old might still spend about a month rehabbing the injury, but his timeline will depend on his day-to-day progress.

Seager spent most of the 2018 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and also underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his hip. He got off to a slow start this season, but was batting .425/.465/.675 in June before succumbing to another injury.

Chris Taylor, who had been platooning in left field with Joc Pederson, will probably take the bulk of Seager's at-bats at shortstop, especially against right-handers.

To fill Seager's spot on the active roster, the Dodgers activated infielder Matt Beaty on Thursday, right before a four-game series against the visiting Chicago Cubs.

The Tampa Bay Rays have been one of the best stories of baseball's first half, entering Thursday with a 41-26 record that's among the best in the majors.

It's the type of performance that typically warrants multiple All-Star Game selections.

But when the initial All-Star voting results were released Monday, only one Rays player -- outfielder Austin Meadows -- was among the top three at his respective position.

"We won't get credit, man," Rays outfielder Tommy Pham told The Athletic in a story published Wednesday. "It's always unfair. Big market vs. small market. It's never going to be fair."

Pham pointed to his own case, as well as teammate Avisail Garcia. Both are hitting around .300 this season, but were behind the Yankees' Brett Gardner (.230) and Red Sox's Jackie Bradley (.199) when the initial voting totals were announced Monday.

"That tells you it right there," Pham told The Athletic.

Specifically, Pham said, it's about the amount of exposure the big-market teams like New York and Boston get compared to the small-market ones like Tampa Bay.

"It's never going to be fair," Pham told The Athletic. "It has to change because when you go into arbitration, that's a big thing that's talked about with accomplishments. Baseball has to be better to fix it. We're not getting any help either from ESPN. We haven't had an ESPN game all year. That's a way for fans to see us by putting us on one of those big-time games. But we continually never get put on, so all they see is the same players. The Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox -- the same teams are always on there.

"When you look at it, all right, we're in a small market, we're never on ESPN. We don't have a ton of national TV games. We're at a disadvantage."

Major League Baseball has changed the voting format ahead of this year's game, to be held July 9 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

A new format to elect starters was put into place starting with the "primary" vote that includes a representative from each team at every position, including designated hitter in the American League. The players with the three highest vote totals at each position will be announced June 21 on MLB Network.

The secondary phase, called "The Starters Election," will begin at noon ET five days later and last for 28 hours. The results, which will be reset from the primary, will choose catchers, four infield positions and three outfielders for each league and be announced on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET on June 27.

The remainder of the 23 players for American League and 24 for the National League, including all pitchers, will be selected by player vote as well as by AL manager Alex Cora of the Red Sox and NL manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The full rosters will be announced June 30 at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Britain's Harriet Dart lost to Australian world number 47 Ajla Tomljanovic in the last 16 of the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham.

Dart, ranked 159th in the world, lost 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-2 in her second grass-court match of the season.

The 22-year-old was broken twice in the opening set but won the tie-break before losing the second and third.

She failed to convert four break points, including two at 2-2 in the deciding set.

On Wednesday British number three Heather Watson lost 6-4 6-3 to Greece's Maria Sakkari, ranked 82 places higher, in the first round in rainy conditions.

Compatriot Katie Swan also lost to American Bernarda Pera 7-6 (7-5) 6-1.

Two-time French Open quarter-finalist Alexander Zverev suffered a shock defeat in the second round of the Stuttgart Open to compatriot and world number 170 Dustin Brown.

German Zverev lost 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 in the first grass court tournament of the season ahead of Wimbledon.

The world number five, who is yet to win a title on grass, led 5-2 in the second but was taken to a tie-break.

He missed three break points at 3-3 in the decider before Brown broke late.

Brown, 34, who famously knocked out Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon in 2015, saved 13 of 14 break points as he claimed only his fifth win over a top-10 ranked player.

Elsewhere, Greek top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas lost 6-4 3-6 6-4 to Chilean world number 60 Nicolas Jarry in the first round in 's-Hertogenbosch.

The world number six was playing in his first grass-court match since a dramatic fourth-round French Open exit against Swiss Stan Wawrinka in Paris.

Belgian fifth seed David Goffin comfortably beat Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3 7-5 in just over an hour and a half in the Netherlands.

Worcester boss Alan Solomons has signed a new deal, committing himself to the Premiership club until the end of the 2021-22 season.

The 68-year-old South African's contract was due to expire at the end of the 2019-20 campaign, but he has been given a two-year extension.

It comes the day after co-owner Jed McCrory quit, leaving Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham in charge.

"Jason Whittingham and I think Alan has done a great job," said Goldring.

"Alan's contract extension ensures continuity and stability.

"We both support his vision and plan to achieve a sustainable top-flight team with the Three Pears Warriors Academy at its core, supported by top-class talented and experienced players."

Solomons joined Warriors in October 2017, initially as assistant to then boss Gary Gold, before being appointed director of rugby when Gold left two months later.

"I am honoured to be afforded the privilege of being part of Warriors' continuing journey," said former Edinburgh coach Solomons, who was also formerly USA Eagles director of rugby and also coached Northampton Saints and the Barbarians.

Warriors finished 10th in the Premiership last season, winning a campaign-best nine out of their 22 games.

They also reached the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals and the last four of the inaugural Premiership Rugby Cup.

Eddie Jones and assistant John Mitchell are set to continue as England's coaching team until at least summer 2021 after the Rugby Football Union abandoned its previous succession plan.

The union announced in January 2018 that Jones would develop a successor to ensure a smooth transition.

However, new RFU chief Bill Sweeney says this policy has now shifted.

"It is not about him grooming a successor," Sweeney told BBC Sport on Thursday.

Jones and Mitchell could both now stay even if England underperform at this year's Rugby World Cup, with Sweeney adding there is no strict break clause in Jones' deal.

It was previously expected Jones would only stay in his role if England reached the semi-finals in Japan.

"We will sit down and we will evaluate how it has gone and look at the performance and then make a decision which is in the best interests of England Rugby," Sweeney added.

"I think it is a bit unfair to say there is a clause in the contract and it is black and white.

"We feel we have got a really strong coaching set-up now, going through Japan and coming back for the almost-immediate Six Nations and the aftermath of that."

Former All Blacks coach Mitchell has signed a two-year extension to his deal, with Sweeney hailing his impact since joining the set-up last autumn and his strong working relationship with Jones.

However, Sweeney says Mitchell is not currently being earmarked to succeed Jones as head coach.

"He is a proven coach with great credentials, so that was purely the decision, it was nothing to do with succession planning," he said.

"Eddie was instrumental in that approach, and wanted John Mitchell to sign up and be part of his coaching team through to June of 2021, so we approached John from that perspective.

"That came after a conversation with Eddie about his commitment, and he has given that."

Sweeney is the RFU's fourth chief executive in as many years, and inherits a union in the midst of a cost-cutting drive.

However the former British Olympics chief says the financial outlook at Twickenham is not as bleak as he expected.

"It really is not a financial crisis," he said. "Inherently here at the RFU you have got a really strong business model.

"I would say we have gone through a little bit of a blip, a bit of a bump, but we are confident we are going to come out of that pretty strong."

CONCORD, N.C. – Though he set the fastest time in qualifying and finished third in his return to the Bojangles’ Summer Shootout on Tuesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bubba Wallace was far from satisfied with his results.

Wallace spent the day soaking in as much knowledge as he could during his first Legend car appearance at the 10-race summer series since 2012, a pursuit that was aided by the support of his longtime grassroots owner Chris Rogers, who the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star returned to drive for.

The 25-year-old piloted a No. 76 dressed up in similar colors to one of the cars he drove for Rogers before at the Summer Shootout, progressively gaining on the setup and his skillset as the night went on.

“For me, it was a matter of learning all night,” noted Wallace. “All those little quirks and tricks that you could use to manipulate the car, I’ve kind of forgotten about, so it’s about getting those back and getting to a place where we can go out and win some races, because that’s what we’re here for.

“We weren’t the best tonight; we were really tight in (turns) one and two and just could not get the drive off (the corner) that we needed,” Wallace added. “In turns three and four, I thought we were OK, but it was just too late to make anything happen. It was great to come back out here, though.”

Wallace redrew the eighth starting position after qualifying on the pole, cracking the top five in just two laps and snagging third for good on the fifth revolution, taking advantage of the race’s lone restart after a caution for the stalled car of Ashton Higgins in turn four.

From there, Wallace stayed consistent but couldn’t stay with eventual winner Joey Padgett and runner-up Carson Ferguson, fading to four seconds adrift by the time the twin checkers waved over the field.

“I didn’t know if (Ryan) Mackintosh was going to take the top on that one choose (restart), and he did, but if he hadn’t then I would have and at least tried to make it a race up there,” Wallace said. “We settled in for third, though, and all in all … the car’s in one piece, so that’s a good day.

“Of course, I would have liked to have won, but for showing up with no practice and to sit on the pole (with the fastest time in qualifying) … that’s a good day,” he added. “My redraw skills just need to be a little bit better. This was a good time, but I forgot how long and drawn out these things are. I’m a little older and getting a little tired, but it’s a lot of fun to be back out here, for sure.”

Though he now races wheel-to-wheel with the best in American stock-car racing on a weekly basis, Wallace said there were a few pre-race jitters before he hit the track for Tuesday night’s 25-lap feature.

“I was actually nervous,” Wallace admitted. “I don’t get nervous on Sundays, but I was nervous sitting on the grid. The butterflies were going, for sure, but it ended up working out.”

Much like several of his Cup Series contemporaries who have returned to their short-track heritage in recent years, Wallace was drawn back to the Summer Shootout by a passion for the sport and the “fun factor” of driving a Legend car on the quarter-mile frontstretch oval at CMS.

“This is what racing is all about,” Wallace said. “You’ve seen it a lot lately, with (Kyle) Larson going back to his roots and running sprint cars … and other Cup guys, as well, going to more short tracks. It’s cool to see. The sport has changed so much, and the car counts have decreased from where it was for a long time here at the Summer Shootout, but hopefully my being here helps to spark some interest and maybe get some kids back in Bandoleros and Legend cars again. I had a blast.

“These things are so much fun to drive. Dirt guys will always put sprint cars on top of their ‘fun list’, but I’ll always say Legend cars are number one,” he added.

Ever the competitor, Wallace isn’t resting on his podium result. He’s focused on trophy hunting and intends to add to his 12 career Summer Shootout victories before the end of the season in July.

“We’ll just keep plugging away,” Wallace pointed out. “I know Chris and I aren’t happy with how we ran, so we might be bringing a new car next week. We’ll see.”