LONDON -- Rafael Nadal has the utmost respect for Wimbledon's host All-England Club, but he also believes the club's unique rules, which elevated Roger Federer above him to the No. 2 seeding, are unfair.

"I respect the Wimbledon rules," Nadal said at his pre-tournament news conference Saturday. "... If I believe that is fair or not, that's another story. I really personally believe [it] is not. But I really respect the tournament so much. I really respect the history of this event. I really understand that they see the sport from another perspective. They want to do it by their own rules."

The unfair "rules" Nadal was referring to is the special formula Wimbledon uses to develop seedings that sometimes depart from the standard ATP rankings, which serve as the seedings at all the other sanctioned tournaments, including the other three majors.

Wimbledon's formula is a mathematically based calculation that gives extra weight to a player's ATP record on grass then seeds in accordance with the adjusted results, elevating some players at the expense of those who don't often play, or play poorly, on grass.

Lifting Federer to No. 2 has conspicuous negative consequences for Nadal this year. The No. 3 seed always faces the task of beating both men seeded above him -- one in the semifinals, the other in the final. In addition, the draw also set up a potential second-round clash between Nadal and the always dangerous -- and unpredictable -- Nick Kyrgios, who has beaten Nadal at Wimbledon before.

"The system is the way it is," Federer said Saturday. "It used to be different. ... There's not much we the players can add to the story, other than we just deal with it.

"At the end of the day, if you want to win the tournament, you got to go through all the players that are in front of you. And now that the draw is out, we move on."

The formula used by Wimbledon was launched in 2001, following a few years during which the tournament committee's seemingly arbitrary elevation of grass-court experts over higher-ranked clay-court specialists led to, among other things, a boycott of Wimbledon by some top Spanish players. While the new formula guaranteed transparency, Wimbledon is the only sanctioned tournament to take surface -- rather than simple ranking -- into account in seedings.

The main complaint about the formula now is that significant changes have created grass courts that play much more like hard courts these days than the sui generis, low-bounce, slippery grass courts of the past. Thus, making allowances for grass-court expertise is no longer necessary.

"We knew that the system was in place," Federer said. "I guess the system is, you know, it rewards you for playing a lot on the grass, well on grass. I guess I benefited from that. That was not part of my plan the last few years. Just happens that this year I get bumped up. Kevin Anderson got bumped up."

Defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic seems to support Nadal.

"It's their rules, and you have to respect it, " Djokovic said of this year's seedings at an exhibition last week. "It's a little bit surprising, to be honest."

Nadal also appeared to send a message of protest to his own player association, the ATP.

"We [the ATP] are an organization that we give 2,000 [ranking] points to this event," Nadal said. "[We're] supposed to have something to say about [these] Wimbledon rules when we are giving them the maximum points possible in one event."

Wimbledon has always insisted on retaining its autonomy as a Grand Slam event, while cooperating with the ATP and the other slams. The ATP did not protest when Wimbledon adopted its seeding formula.

The Milwaukee Bucks plan to waive veteran guard George Hill, who was part of the team's "Bench Mob" during its run to the Eastern Conference finals this season, a source confirmed to ESPN.

Hill joined the Bucks in December when the Cleveland Cavaliers dealt him in a three-team trade. He averaged 6.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 47 regular-season games for Milwaukee.

The 33-year-old upped his production to 11.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in the playoffs. Hill was often the first player off the bench for the Bucks, and he coined the rallying "Bench Mob" phrase.

Hill had one year and $18 million remaining on his contract, but only $1 million of that is guaranteed before July 2.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported that Hill is expected to be waived.

ESPN's Malika Andrews contributed to this report.

The Denver Nuggets have exercised a $30 million option on forward Paul Millsap's contract for next season, bringing back a key player for the franchise's pursuit of a Western Conference title, league sources told ESPN on Saturday.

Denver can keep Millsap, hold onto its $9.2M mid-level exception and still stay out of the luxury tax next season.

Millsap, a four-time All-Star, averaged 12.6 points and 7.2 rebounds a game for the Nuggets. Denver (54-28) had the second-best record in the West and reached Game 7 of the conference semifinals against the Portland Trail Blazers. 

Denver has 12 of its players set to return next season, including a young core of All-NBA center Nikola Jokic and guard Jamal Murray.

"From how I want to do it, how I want my story to be told, [this is] definitely the group that can help me do it," Millsap told reporters after the season about wanting to stay with the Nuggets. "That's definitely a dream and a goal of mine. I think it's the goal for everybody, especially the younger guys."

Millsap ranked third among NBA power forwards -- trailing only Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis -- in real plus-minus (4.24). 

Across 13 NBA seasons with the Jazz, Hawks and Nuggets, Millsap has averaged 14.1 points and 7.4 rebounds. He's shot 49% from the field.

Free-agent stars Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard have been discussing scenarios that could include a future with them playing together, league sources told ESPN.

For now, there are two clear possibilities for the All-NBA forwards to sign into the same franchise -- the LA Clippers and New York Knicks.

Durant and Leonard are planning to talk with each of those teams once free agency opens Sunday at 6 p.m. ET, league sources said.

Leonard and Durant are each planning discussions and meetings with several teams, but only the Clippers and Knicks are in alignment with salary-cap space and common interest to sign both players. Brooklyn could conceivably house both, but a more likely scenario would be Durant and point guard Kyrie Irving signing as free agents with the Nets. Brooklyn is firmly Irving's focus in free agency, league sources said.

Leonard is expected to meet with the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Knicks and Toronto Raptors upon the opening of free agency. Durant is planning conversations with the Clippers, Knicks, Nets and Warriors, league sources told ESPN.

LONDON -- Major League Baseball has scrapped plans to open its 2020 season in Asia and hopes to play more games in Europe.

MLB started its season in Tokyo for the fifth time in 2019, and its labor contract with the players' association called for a 2020 opener in Asia.

"We just decided it probably wasn't the right time to try to do it," Manfred said Saturday.

This season, in addition to Tokyo and London, MLB had two series in Monterrey, Mexico.

"We have a fairly small international staff," Manfred said. "This was a really aggressive play for us this year."

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox play MLB's first games in Europe this weekend at London's Olympic Stadium, the home of Premier League soccer club West Ham.

The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are to play at the same venue next June.

"I would like to have sustained play in Europe," Manfred said. "I'm glad we're coming back next year. I'd like to be back after that. But I am interested in having play in other cities in Europe."

Manfred would not identify which cities interest him.

"We're really at a very preliminary point. They key thing with any city is the facility," he said. "A lot of people will tell you they can build a ballpark. Until you get on the ground and figure whether a particular facility can be configured for baseball, it's just premature to get into other cities."

Manfred said 70% of the tickets for the Yankees-Red Sox games were sold in Britain and 30% in the United States. Red Sox season-ticket holders purchased an average of 5,831 seats per game and Yankees buyers 4,752 during the presale.

"We're trying to bring baseball to the U.K., so that 70% is important to us," he said. "That 30% is our most loyal, devoted, interested fan base, and the fact that those people want to travel either from New York or Boston to see a Yankees-Red Sox game, it's not bad news for us either."

MLB hopes the games in London grow European fan engagement and player development.

"We have 20 people from Europe under contract with major league organizations," Manfred said. "We'd like to see that number grow. Obviously when you have a European player, a player from a particular country making his mark in the major leagues, it drives interest among the people in that country, and that's really important for us."

The NFL has played regular-season games annually in London since 2007, and the NBA since 2011. The NHL opened its 2007-08 season at London's O2 Arena but has not returned.

"Playing in Europe presents some challenges for us that the NFL doesn't have," Manfred said. "It's a lot easier for them to play in a soccer/football stadium, virtually impossible for us. So we do have additional challenges."

LONDON -- Have you ever felt like we're surrounded? Like there is something out there following us, wherever we go in the world? Something inescapable?

Well, there is. It's the New York Yankees hat.

I first realized this a few years ago. I was in Pazardzhik, which is a small town in rural Bulgaria. How rural? There were horses pulling carriages through parts of the village. Most of the buildings were blocks of concrete built in Soviet times. All the signs were written in Cyrillic. It is among the least American places I have ever visited.

And yet, as I stumbled around, looking for a spot to buy a bottled water, there it was, an oasis of familiarity in the traveler's desert of confusion, perched upon the head of a man reading a newspaper at a bus stop.

The interlocking N-Y.

The man and I met eyes. I said, "Yankees?" to him, and he looked confused. I went closer, gesturing toward his navy blue cap this time. He smiled. "USA!" he said. I suddenly felt at home.

Turns out, they are everywhere. I stumbled off a red-eye flight to Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, only to be picked up by a cab driver wearing one. In Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, it was the guy behind the counter at the gym. In Kazakhstan, I saw one on a young lady selling SIM cards in a street market. In Albania, it was the security guard in front of the soccer stadium. In London, where the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox in the two-game London Series this weekend, they're pretty much anywhere you look.

At the risk of sounding like Dr. Seuss, let me put it this way:

I have seen them worn in Russia and I've seen them in Dubai.

I have seen them in Korea on both ladies and on guys.

I'm also not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon. In conversations with friends and other travelers, stories came gushing in of sightings at the Sydney Opera House and the seaport in Senegal. Geneva, sure, but also Guinea. My friend Kevin told me he recently started counting Yankees hats while visiting Shanghai Disney Resort in China but stopped after he got to more than two dozen in the first 20 minutes. In fact, nearly everyone I spoke to who has done any kind of international traveling seems to have a story about the strangest place they encountered a Yankees hat, including the president of the New York Yankees.

Randy Levine, who has been with the team since 2000, said his weirdest moment came shortly after he arrived in Beijing on a business trip more than a decade ago. Racked by jet lag, he went to visit Tiananmen Square at 1 a.m. when he promptly came across a group of three young Chinese men and one woman wearing Yankees hats.

With his interpreter in tow, Levine walked up to the group and asked excitedly, "Do you like the Yankees?"

One of the men replied quickly, and the interpreter turned to Levine with a tinge of regret. "We don't know what the Yankees are," the interpreter whispered, "... but we like the hats.'"

That kind of reply is actually more common than you might think. While most team logos are almost inextricably linked to the team itself -- it's hard to imagine anyone outside the United States looking at, say, the Orioles' cartoonish bird logo and immediately thinking of Baltimore -- the Yankees hat is appealing to many simply because it smacks of New York.

Add in its long-running presence in films, television shows and music videos -- Jay-Z alone has made the Yankees hat a pop-culture fashion classic -- and even Major League Baseball officials are quick to admit that a large percentage of the people wearing Yankees hats abroad have little idea they're supporting anything other than New York City.

"Some of the research we've seen is that the Yankee logo is a sign of quality," said Jim Small, MLB's senior vice president for international. "There's a certain brand equity that the Yankees have ... that while maybe people don't know it's connected to a baseball team, they know that it is about quality. And that's powerful."

Part of that, obviously, comes from success -- winning 27 World Series titles doesn't hurt. But the Yankees have purposely worked to cultivate their brand internationally, too, signing a partnership agreement with the Chinese national baseball federation in 2007, even before MLB had a leaguewide one. They also did marketing deals with big-name global sports teams such as the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, and Manchester United (first) and Manchester City (more recently) in England.

In recent years, more and more major league clubs have worked to grow their brand internationally, including the Boston Red Sox, who are led by an ownership group that also runs European soccer champions Liverpool.

Still, the Yankees remain the standard, if for no reason other than sheer tonnage. The next time you go to Cameroon or Cambodia, Swaziland or Switzerland, take a walk through a public park or city square and look around.

It almost surely won't be long before you realize what many already know:

Wherever you are, a Yankees hat is never that far away.

An incredible opening ceremonies to tonight's opener of the London Series at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The anthems of both countries were beautifully sung, and competitors from the Invictus Games threw out first pitches to Yankees starter CC Sabathia and Red Sox starter Chris Sale. Joining the competitors on the field were the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

World number three Karolina Pliskova outclassed Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-4 to win her second Eastbourne title in style.

Pliskova, from the Czech Republic, will head to Wimbledon full of confidence after a superb display sealed victory over the German in 71 minutes.

She broke fourth seed Kerber's serve three times to take the first set and once on her way to winning the second.

The 27-year-old did not lose a set during the Nature Valley International.

"All week I was playing quite perfect," said Pliskova. "But not all the matches were as easy the score says, especially today."

The match between two former world number ones was billed as a battle between Pliskova, the great server, and Kerber, the great returner.

Pliskova's big serve dominated all week but it was the way the second seed attacked 31-year-old Kerber's serve that proved the difference.

The Czech player broke Kerber's opening service game and the German did not manage to hold her serve until the third game of the second set.

Pliskova then broke Kerber's serve at the first opportunity in the second and although the three-time Grand Slam champion played much better, the depth and power of the Czech's groundstrokes continued to give her control of the key points.

She dropped just seven points on her serve in the set and finished with seven aces.

Pliskova, who has yet to win a Grand Slam title, gets her Wimbledon campaign under way against China's Zhu Lin on Monday.

Jana Novotna in 1998 was the last player to win Eastbourne and go on to win Wimbledon.

Kerber will open the defence of her title against compatriot Tatjana Maria on Tuesday.

"Going back as a defending champion it will be a special moment stepping onto Centre Court again," said Kerber.

"I'm feeling good, I'm playing good and hopefully I can continue on my play from last year."

Analysis

Former British number one Sam Smith on BBC TV

I think that was one of the best performances we've seen on this court.

It was such an intelligent display tactically. The way Pliskova mixed up her serving Kerber didn't know which way to go and was standing so far back.

There was also clear thinking about where she wanted to hit her returns and clear thinking in the exchanges with the way she changed the pace of her shots which meant she gave Kerber constant problems to solve.

MOST, Czech Republic – Nicolo Rocca grabbed his fifth career NASCAR Whelen Euro Series pole in the tour’s debut at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic on Saturday.

Four years and two days after his last one, the Italian clocked a 1:41.431 lap in the Superpole session, securing the best starting position for the seventh race in ELITE 1.

In ELITE 2, championship leader Giorgio Maggi took his maiden NWES pole with a 1:41.339 lap, making it eight different polesitters in the first four events of the season.

Rocca is fighting for the 2019 NWES title and Junior Trophy win with his PK Carsport Chevrolet Camaro in the ELITE 1 Division.

In his first outing on the Czech track, he was just a blink of an eye faster than Loris Hezemans, who ended up second by a mere .032 seconds.

Rocca became the fourth different ELITE 1 polesitter this season.

“Since yesterday I had a great feeling with the car on this beautiful track,” said Rocca. “I woke up this morning and was just thinking about grabbing this pole position. I knew we had the car to make it happen. The PK Carsport guys worked incredibly well the whole season and we start giving them back good results. I was fast and did a good lap, which was enough for grabbing the pole. I’m very happy. It will be a challenging and hot race, but I’m not too worried. I will give my best to bring home a good result today.”

While Hezemans came just a little bit short after being fastest in Q1, championship leader and two-time NWES champion Alon Day was third with a gap of .382 seconds from the pole.

Rocca’s teammate Stienes Longin, who sits second in the ELITE 1 Division standings, ended up fourth by clocking a 1:41.972 lap in Superpole. Jacques Villeneuve showed a promising pace in Qualifying but couldn’t reach his full potential in Superpole and will start fifth.

Lucas Lasserre finished a positive sixth ahead of Thomas Ferrando, who is racing for CAAL Racing at the NASCAR GP Czechia this weekend. The Frenchman posted his best result since the season opener and edged Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, who advanced to Superpole for the very first time in his NWES career.

Francesco Sini entered Superpole once again and was ninth ahead of Christophe Bouchut, who is back in Euro NASCAR with Alex Caffi Motorsport.

Three-time NWES champion and Valencia double race winner Ander Vilarino only ended up 15th quickest.

Maggi captured his first ever NWES pole position in Czechia and became the fourth different ELITE 2 polesitter of the season.

The Swiss driver clocked a blistering fast lap of 1:41.339 and held a .799 seconds gap to three-time race winner Lasse Soerensen.

Maggi’s lap would have granted him the pole in ELITE 1.

“It was very close on the track, but it was a very good lap,” said Maggi. “I’m a little bit surprised about myself, to be honest. For sure I will give my best to grab my second win here today, but it will be tricky in the first corner, as the straight is very long. We have to break the cars down hard, so we’ll see what happens.”

Soerensen, who sits fifth in points, edged Andre Castro by just .003 seconds. The top three qualifiers also mirror the Rookie Trophy classification.

Local hero Martin Doubek, who is back after a knee injury, put a smile on the faces of his fans by finishing fourth ahead of Advait Deodhar, who is looking to improve his current third place in the ELITE 2 standings.

Eoin Morgan has admitted England are prepared to take a risk with the fitness of Jason Roy and Jofra Archer in Sunday's match against India.

England go into the game knowing that they almost certainly need to win it to keep their World Cup hopes alive. As a result, they are desperate to play their first-choice side even if it involves risking their involvement later in the tournament.

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Roy had missed England last three World Cup games - two of which have been defeats - after sustaining a hamstring injury during the match against West Indies. His replacement, James Vince, has managed just 40 runs in three innings while Roy has passed fifty in five of his last six ODIs in a spell that includes two centuries.

Archer, meanwhile, has been suffering from some stiffness in his side. His average pace has dropped a little in that period and he did not bowl in training on Friday.

Both men are set to train on Saturday, however, and undergo some sort of fitness test on Sunday morning ahead of the game. Morgan made no secret of his desire to play both of them.

"Jason is preparing to play tomorrow," Morgan said on Saturday. "Provided he gets through today's practice and tomorrow morning unscathed. We think he might be fit to play.

"If him playing is going to rule him out long-term, then absolutely not," Morgan replied to a question asking if Roy would be risked for the game. "But if it's going to rule him out for a couple of weeks, yes.

"The exact same thing applies with Archer. "If it's long-term (risk), then no. if it's short-term, then yes.

"Again, we're going to see how he comes through today. It's the same thing he's been playing with the last three games."

Morgan also accepted that, with many India supporters expected at Edgbaston on Sunday, it may feel like an away game. Some estimates suggest as many as 80 percent of spectators may be supporting India in a scenario that reminded Morgan of the Champions Trophy final played at the same ground in 2013.

"I sort of recall the Champions Trophy final we played here against India," Morgan said. "It was a complete away game. We had a number of fans in the ground, but the noise the Indian fans make with horns makes it that much louder. So yes, tomorrow will feel like an away game."

In one way, this match may prove quite different. That Champions Trophy match was played on a very dry - though new - surface which offered considerable assistance to the spinners. This match will be played on a fresh pitch which looks considerably better than any of those seen at Edgbaston in the tournament to date. It is not expected to provide much assistance to spinners - or seamers - and could prove to be a high-scoring encounter.

"We want to play on best possible batting wicket and we always do," Morgan said. "We bat deep and we bat strong. It's an area we're more confident. Everybody knows that.

"But where we've let ourselves down as a group if adapting to conditions. It's been a bigger challenge in this World Cup than previous bilateral series that we've played. Tomorrow is going to be the same. We're going to have to adapt to conditions and to playing against a strong side in India."