Reigning Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber is through to the semi-finals of Eastbourne after beating Romania's Simona Halep in straight sets.

Germany's world number five Kerber, twice a runner-up at Eastbourne, won 6-4 6-3 in one hour and 13 minutes.

Kerber converted five of her seven break points against Halep.

The three-time Grand Slam champion will next face unseeded Tunisian Ons Jabeur - the conqueror of Britain's Johanna Konta - on Friday.

"I am really happy how I played," Kerber told BBC Sport. "To play against Simona, you know you have to play the best tennis."

Jabeur continued her fine run with a 1-6 7-5 6-3 victory over France's Alize Cornet.

Third seed Kiki Bertens beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 3-6 6-4 in their quarter-final, while Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova faces Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova later on Thursday.

WAYNESFIELD, OH. –  There’s a lot of incentive on tap for the 11th annual Jack Hewitt Classic presented by K&L Ready Mix, Helms and Son Excavating and Kistler Racing Products on July 3 at Waynesfield Raceway Park.

Besides the great pay-out for the FAST winged 410 sprints, Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series (BOSS) non-wing sprints and the K&L Ready Mix National Racing Alliance (NRA) Sprint Invaders (360 sprints), race promoter Shane Helms has incentives for drivers to race in more than one division.

The event honors racing legend and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame member Jack Hewitt, a Troy, Ohio native.

Hewitt, who made a name for himself as an champion with the All Star Circuit of Champions, USAC Silver Crown Series and had wins with the World of Outlaws, USAC Sprints and Midgets and wins across the country, in winged and non-wing sprints, is known for his no-nonsense attitude and love of the sport.

He also competed in the 1998 Indianapolis 500.

The FAST winged 410 sprint feature winner will take home $4,000 ($400 to start the A-main) while the NRA feature winner will claim $2,000 to win and the BOSS winner will take home $1,500.

If one driver can win two out of the three A-mains there’s a $1,000 bonus. If a driver can win all three A-mains he or she will walk away with a $5,000 bonus. There’s also a $200 bonus for the highest finishing 305 sprint car in the 360 A-main.

A driver has to compete in a different car in each class to be eligible.

“First and foremost I want to thank Kenny Clark and the employees at the Fremont Fence Company. We nearly pulled the plug on this event because the weather has put us so far behind on making improvements to the fencing in turns three and four. Fremont Fence came to the rescue. Despite trying to play catch-up with their business because of the weather, they committed crews to work Saturday and Sunday to get fencing improvements made so we can race this event. We have also added a lot of new seats at the track and the pit bleachers have been moved to the back stretch,” Helms said.

“I want to thank everyone for all the hard work and encouragement as we work to make improvements at Waynesfield,” Helms added.

LEXINGTON, N.C. – Kaulig Racing will field three Chevrolets for the first time in team history during the upcoming NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

The team has added Ross Chastain to its roster at Daytona, along with previously-announced driver AJ Allmendinger and full-time driver Justin Haley.

The team will race the No. 16 with Chastain behind the wheel, in addition to its No. 10 (Allmendinger) and No. 11 (Haley) Chevrolets at Daytona.

“Being able to bring a third car to Daytona and have our part-time driver Ross Chastain behind the wheel only increases our chances of getting the win,” team owner Matt Kaulig said. “Not by the addition of a car, but by the additional teammate our two drivers Justin Haley and AJ Allmendinger will have – Daytona is all about teamwork.”

To date, the team has led 57 laps at the World Center of Racing, with an average start of 8.1 and best finish of seventh (Feb. 2018). Earlier this year, Haley took the first stage win of the season at Daytona, with teammate Chastain winning the second stage.

“The success this team has had at resistor-plate tracks this season hasn’t gone unnoticed,” team president Chris Rice commented. “To have two stage wins and five top-five stage finishes in just two races shows the strength Kaulig Racing has.”

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver Parker Chase has welcomed country recording and touring artists Randy Rogers and the Randy Rogers Band as his newest partners with Starworks Motorsport.

The band celebrates its 19th anniversary this year and joins Chase to promote its eighth studio album, Hellbent.

Rogers, who also hails from New Braunfels, has been a close friend of the Chase family for many years, performing concerts at the historic Saengerhalle — a dance hall owned by the family in the early 2000s, long before he and the band reached the nationwide audience they have today.

“I’ve known Parker Chase almost his entire life. I watched him go from crawl to walk to run to race. And he was hellbent on making it to the next level the whole way,” said Rogers. “Partnering with him on promoting our new album just makes sense. We both know a thing or two about Hellbent!”

“I am so excited to partner with the Randy Rogers Band,” added Chase. “Growing up in Texas, I’ve been a huge fan for as long as I can remember. To get to be part of promoting his newest album, Hellbent — and single ‘Crazy People’ — is an honor, and a title quite fitting for our team.”

Randy Rogers Band will be a part of Chase’s racing program for the remainder of his season, starting with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen this weekend at Watkins Glen International Raceway. Chase will race the No. 8 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo in the six hour endurance racing event with Starworks Motorsport co-drivers Ryan Dalziel and Mike Skeen.

Music from Randy Rogers Band can be heard all weekend at the Starworks Motorsport garage in the IMSA paddock, while the team prepares the car for each day of on track activity. Chase and the team will also be giving away band related merchandise throughout the course of the weekend, both in person and on social media.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is a crown jewel of endurance racing.

With a history dating back to the late 1960s and a list of winners that includes some of the greatest road racers of all time, the annual six-hour battle on the 3.4-mile Watkins Glen International circuit is a bona fide big one.

On Sunday, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns for another six-hour battle at The Glen, beginning at 9:45 a.m. ET. The race, which also marks the third round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, will be televised on NBCSN beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

The list of previous Six Hours of The Glen winners reads like a motorsports “Who’s Who.”

Legendary names in road racing like Jacky Ickx, Mario Andretti, Brian Redman, Jo Siffert, Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood were among the winners in the first decade of the event.

The late ‘70s and early 1980s saw more legendary names – like Hans-Joachim Stuck, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, Derek Bell and Al Holbert – added to the Six Hours of The Glen’s winners list.

Beginning in September 1984 and running through the mid-‘90s, the race length changed to 500 kilometers, but still more legendary names – like Geoff Brabham, Chip Robinson and Juan Manuel Fangio II – were winners at The Glen.

The Six Hours returned in 1996 and, aside from 1998, has been run every year since.

Over the past 20 years, even more legends – like Scott Pruett, Bill Auberlen, Andy Lally, Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa – have pulled into victory lane after six grueling hours.

“Watkins Glen is, hands down, my favorite racetrack on the planet,” said Lally, a four-time Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen winner who will share the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 with John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly in the GT Daytona class on Sunday. “For me, it’s my home state. It’s where I grew up, not too far, and it is a special place for me, not only for endurance racing, but for NASCAR racing.

“I’ve raced prototypes and GT cars there, I’ve races open-wheel formula cars there and I’ve raced stock cars there. And every time, it’s always a battle. On the short course or the long course, for me, it just doesn’t get any better than Watkins Glen.”

To Lally’s point, the Watkins Glen Int’l circuit is another key contributor to the event’s prestige. Between 1948 and 1952, racing in Watkins Glen was done on a 6.6-mile course, utilizing streets and roads in and around the small village in the Finger Lakes region of Western New York.

The permanent road course began at its current location in 1956, and Watkins Glen hosted Formula 1 Grand Prix races for 20 years beginning in 1961.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has raced on the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen “short course” every year since 1986, and IndyCar also has raced there several times, which all adds to the mystique of “The Glen.”

“I think Watkins Glen is an amazing track,” said Juan Pablo Montoya, who heads into Sunday’s race riding a two-race WeatherTech Championship winning streak in the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi with co-driver Dane Cameron. “It’s a really fast, flowing track and it really suits our cars.

“It’s tough. It’s one of the hardest races of endurance racing, because there’s so many fast corners. Physically, it’s very demanding and it makes it fun. It’s a place where you can push so hard.”

It’s also a place where Montoya has raced not only in the Acura DPi, but also in IndyCar and NASCAR, making him uniquely qualified to compare the experiences at The Glen.

“This (Acura DPi) is very close to the IndyCar,” Montoya said. “It’s actually shockingly close, how fast you can go, compared with the IndyCar. It’ll be interesting to see how much closer we get this year with the Michelins this year and the extra power. It should be at least two seconds a lap quicker than the last time we were there, so I don’t know.

“It’s going to make it a really, really brave place.”

By his own admission, Billy Venturini didn’t suddenly decide to turn Venturini Motorsports into a developmental team.

The team, once a small family-run organization started by two-time ARCA champion Bill Venturini, has become a multi-car powerhouse in the ARCA Menards Series. Since 2008, Venturini Motorsports, under the direction of Billy Venturini, has won 41 ARCA Menards Series races with a who’s who of star drivers.

Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, 2017 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series champion Christopher Bell and 2015 NASCAR Gander Truck Series champion Erik Jones are three of the dozens of drivers to take a turn behind the wheel of Venturini-prepared race cars during the last 11 years.

So what led to Venturini Motorsports becoming a developmental powerhouse?

Necessity.

“It was forced upon. It was a financial situation. We didn’t go from me driving to being like, ‘We’re going to be a driver development team.’ It went from we’re going to drive to, OK, I need to make a living,” 43-year-old Billy Venturini said.

The transition from family team to driver development team began in 2007 when Venturini inked a deal to put part-time racer Tom Berte in one of the team’s cars for a few races. The deal served as a way to pay the bills during a time when money was scarce.

“It was not a big-money deal at all, but it was enough,” said Venturini, who stressed that he was only a few months away at the time from having to find a job to pay his own bills. “It was enough of a deal … the only thing it did was it bought me time.”

Later in the same year, Venturini inked a deal to put Joe Gibbs Racing developmental driver Marc Davis in Venturini equipment at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway. The pairing worked and the result was a fourth-place finish.

That was the start of a beautiful relationship between Venturini Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

“J.D. Gibbs and I raced Legend Cars together, so we were buddies,” Venturini recalled. “We take Marc and we run him and we run another kid, not through Gibbs, so we run these two kids, younger kids and they’re both decent little race car drivers.

“First chance we get with Marc we run fourth at Toledo in 2007. That right there, it wasn’t a big sample size, but just the couple times we had decent drivers we did really well.”

It wasn’t long before J.D. Gibbs came calling again, but this time the stakes were higher. He wanted Venturini Motorsports to field a car for rising star Joey Logano in the Carolina 500 ARCA Menards Series race at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

“J.D. said, ‘What do you gotta do to be better?’ I told him, ‘We just need an opportunity, we can do this,’”

Venturini said. “I don’t know why he believed me, probably shouldn’t have, but he did. He gave me the opportunity to go to Rockingham in 2008.”

One could say May 4, 2008, was the day Venturini Motorsports became a developmental team. That was the day Logano, driving the team’s familiar No. 25 Chevrolet, annihilated the ARCA Menards Series field at Rockingham Speedway.

Logano’s lightning-fast qualifying lap at 146.645 mph was an indication of things to come in the race.

“We sat on the pole for the race, led 257 out of 312 laps and at one point lapped the entire field,” Venturini said. “We didn’t beat them, we kicked their asses. And we kicked the asses of some really good race teams down there. I knew when we went down there, I knew this was my moment. If I was going to make this deal work, I had to capitalize on it. We have to win. In my mind, there was no other choice than to win that race.”

Venturini Motorsports didn’t just capitalize, the team took the opportunity and drove it straight to the bank.

“That one day changed everything. It changed it all. Joey was perfect. We called the perfect race. The pit stops were perfect. Every star aligned,” Venturini said. “In one day, we went from family team trying to do this to … I think the style in which we won validated us immediately. We were on the map.”

The Toe Poke Daily is here every day to bring you all the weirdest stories, quirkiest viral content and top trolling that the internet has to offer, all in one place.

Jump to: Real Madrid 'bring the noise' with new away kit | Rio Ferdinand's fiancee can't escape him on hen party

D.C. United pipped Orlando City 1-0 in MLS on Wednesday, with Wayne Rooney once again scoring the pivotal goal that will live long in the memory.

With just 10 minutes played, Rooney picked the ball up deep inside his own half, looked up, spotted Orlando goalkeeper Brian Rowe had temporarily vacated his goal and proceeded to thump a monstrous shot in from where he stood.

You've got to give it to Rooney, the guy certainly knows how to score a bona fide banger, even at the ripe old age of 33.

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Real Madrid 'bring the noise' with new away kit

Let the world know we're ready. Raise the volume ?
The new @adidasfootball @realmadrid away kit out now.
Shop here: https://t.co/4sYIrimX3P#HalaMadrid | #DareToCreate pic.twitter.com/lm8gv5kPn9

— Real Madrid C.F. ???? (@realmadriden) June 27, 2019

After shocking precisely nobody by opting for a primarily white home kit for next season, Real Madrid have now unveiled the away strip that will be worn alongside it.

The Spanish giants have revealed a dark blue, black and gold shirt will be worn on their travels in 2019-20.

The shirt also features a "soundwave" graphic across the chest which apparently symbolises the "noise generated by the fans in the historic season in which Real Madrid conquered La Decima."

Maybe this will start a new trend in new kits, with fans moved to ask every summer: "Never mind how it looks... How does it sound?"

Rio Ferdinand's fiancee can't escape him on hen party

With a wedding on the cards, Rio Ferdinand's fiancee Kate Wright flew out with a group of her closest friends to Mykonos to celebrate her hen party in style.

Before flying out to the Greek island, "Mrs Ferdy-To-Be" posed for an ensemble photo with guests at the airport while perched atop a rather fetching custom suitcase bearing her future husband's grinning face.

View this post on Instagram

Me & the girls ready for my hen???? #MrsFerdytobe ... we decided to have a social media detox to actually enjoy ourselves rather than be on our phones checking Instagram 24/7.... be prepared for a LOT of piks ?? thank you @itluggage for our cases ? ✈️ #ferdinandputaringonherhand #gifted

A post shared by Kate Wright (@xkatiewright) on Jun 25, 2019 at 4:46am PDT

According to the Daily Mirror, Wright put a social media ban on the holiday while the party was in progress but she certainly made up for it after the blackout was lifted.

Indeed, we were treated to the truly harrowing sight of 16 expressionless, chanting Rio Ferdinands marching at us from out of the darkness.

View this post on Instagram

Now .... excuse my witch cackle ?‍♀️ BUT i could not breathe with laughter????? LOVE YOU GIRLS ?? #ferdinandputaringonherhand

A post shared by Kate Wright (@xkatiewright) on Jun 26, 2019 at 12:17pm PDT

Now there's an experience we're keen to never repeat.

If you're wondering what Ferdinand himself was doing in the meantime, he was out in Vietnam where he met up with an old work colleague.

View this post on Instagram

Good to spend last few days with Mr Ji Unit... one of @premierleague's & @manchesterunited best value for money signing in years, £4mill ?? ???????? 4 Premier League ???????? 4 Community Shield ???????? 3 League Cup ??? 1 UCL ?? 1 Club World Cup #ParkJiSung #MUFC

A post shared by Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) on Jun 24, 2019 at 12:36pm PDT

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- In the end, Gregg Berhalter's strategy worked, and while it wasn't much fun to watch, the payoff could come later in this Gold Cup for the U.S. men's national team.

Heading into the group stage finale against Panama, both teams had already secured their spots in the quarterfinal. The main questions centered on the order of finish and who each team would face next, but there were deeper issues, as well. The games in the knockout stage take place at an accelerated pace -- just two full days separate the quarterfinals from the semifinals -- and there is the matter of getting rest for the presumed starting lineup. That led to questions of squad rotation: How much, and for whom?

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Panama manager Julio Dely Valdes opted to name nine new starters, but Berhalter went even wilder, swapping out all 11 players that started against Trinidad & Tobago and replacing them with their nominal reserves. It seemed a bit of a gamble from Berhalter given how elusive consistency has been for the U.S., but he didn't see it that way.

"The decision to start 11 new players was an easy one, to be honest," he said. "We believe in the group. We believe in keeping the group together. We believe that everyone can contribute to this team, for the team's success, and we wanted to show that.

"The guys have been training really well, and they deserved this opportunity."

The game itself was hard on the eyes, even if it did end with a 1-0 U.S. victory. While the home side controlled the game's tempo for long periods, the attack sputtered, creating little in the way of chances. Some of this can be chalked up to some rust, while Panama seemed content to sit back and absorb pressure as well. The service from the flanks wasn't good enough, either, and was easily cut out by the Canaleros' defense.

"I think we gave too many bouncing balls. We lost the balls in tough areas; our touches were a bit sloppy," said midfielder Cristian Roldan. "Just a bit rusty overall. When you change the lineup, that can happen."

If a goal was going to come, it was either going to arrive via a mistake or a gritty play. As it turned out, it was a bit of both. Djordje Mihailovic swung in a corner that was intended for Roldan, but seeing his teammates marked, he kept the play alive and headed the goal back across goal. When a pair of Panamanian defenders didn't deal with the danger, Jozy Altidore went for the bicycle kick and deposited the ball in the net from close range.

The celebration that followed saw Roldan go for the bear hug on Altidore, only to realize the bear was too big.

"It's hard to grab that man. He's a big boy, and he's very powerful," said Roldan about Altidore. "It's very hard to get on his front side."

The sight of Altidore getting on the scoresheet was the most welcome development of the night. The Toronto FC mainstay remains the best forward in the U.S. pool, and his hold-up play and passing will come in handy as the games get tougher. But he entered the training camp for the Gold Cup carrying the remnants of a hamstring injury, and Berhalter has opted to bring him along slowly. While Altidore played 45 minutes in the 3-0 friendly defeat to Venezuela, he had logged just 16 minutes in the Gold Cup prior to Wednesday night.

The extent to which that has left Altidore frustrated is unknown. He's done little to no media since arriving in the U.S. camp and declined to speak with reporters after this match. But his primal scream of a goal celebration hinted at some pent-up energy, and he was determined to see out as much of this encounter as he could.

Berhalter said, "I talked to Jozy at halftime, and I asked him, 'How much more do you have in you?' He said, 'I want to stay on the field.' When you hear that from a player, it makes you feel great. And then when that player goes out and scores the winning goal, it makes you feel even better, because him and all the players on the field today, they wanted to win. They wanted to win for the team."

Given the fact that he lasted 83 minutes, it would seem that Altidore is ready to lead the line in the knockout rounds. As for the rest of the lineup, center-backs Miazga and Omar Gonzalez acquitted themselves well, and right-back Reggie Cannon was able to get forward and contribute to the attack. Yet it seems likely that besides Altidore, no one did enough to burrow their way into the starting lineup for Sunday's quarterfinal against Curacao. The minutes they chewed up still have value, however, in that they allowed the usual starters to get rest, an important consideration as the games get tougher.

With the quarterfinals now set to begin, the U.S. finds itself in a good, albeit imperfect, place. The U.S. knows it needs to be better, but given the alarm bells ringing at the beginning of the month following two warm-up defeats, the sight of a clean sweep in the group stage with an 11-goal margin in terms of goal differential is one the U.S. will take.

What matters now is performing when the Gold Cup stakes are highest. The prize is three wins away.