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.”

Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova faces Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova later on Thursday, while Kiki Bertens is currently on court against Aryna Sabalenka in their quarter-final match.

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A brand new 12-team Fed Cup Finals will take place on clay in Budapest in Hungary, in April of next year.

As BBC Sport reported in March, 20 teams will have the chance to be crowned world champions each year, with eight qualifying ties taking place in February.

The winners of those ties will join this year’s finalists Australia and France, hosts Hungary and one wildcard nation in the inaugural Finals.

There is an $18m (£14.2m) prize fund.

Of that, $12m (£9.5m) will go to the players, and the other $6m (£4.75m) to their national associations.

Not everyone is happy with the new format, though, with former world number one and French Open champion Simona Halep saying she “won’t play any more”.

“To play home and away is the best feeling,” she said in Eastbourne this week.

“Away, you have to manage the emotions and the pressures. If the Fed Cup is going to change, I won’t play any more because I like the format that it is now. I love it actually. So if there is a change, it will be tough to play.”

Under the current format, the champions need to negotiate three home or away ties. From next year, they will play no more than one.

David Haggerty, the president of the International Tennis Federation which runs the competition, argues the new format remains true to the original.

“The launch of the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Finals will create a festival of tennis that elevates this flagship women’s team competition to a new level, yet remains loyal to the historic core of the Fed Cup,” he said.

Great Britain will contest a five-match qualifying tie at the end of the first week of February, having secured promotion to the World Group by beating Kazakhstan in London in April.

Potential opponents then include Japan, Romania, the United States, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic.

If Anne Keothavong’s side are successful, they will feature in the Finals at the Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena from 14-19 April.

The multi-purpose indoor complex, which is named after Hungary’s triple Olympic boxing gold medallist, will stage the Finals until 2022.

Ties will consist of two singles matches, and one doubles. There will be four groups of three teams, with the winners of each group progressing to the semi-finals.

The WTA were keen for the Finals to be played on clay, as the event is sandwiched between two important clay court events in Charleston and Stuttgart.

The Fed Cup, which was founded in 1963, is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport.

The Davis Cup – the men’s equivalent team competition – has already undergone significant reform.

A $3bn (£2.4bn) 25-year partnership has been agreed with Kosmos, the investment group founded by the Barcelona defender Gerard Pique.

This November, 18 teams will compete for the title and $20m (£15.8m) of prize money in the inaugural finals in Madrid.

There will be some eye watering sums on offer for the women, too. Each team will share $500,000 just for making it to the Finals, with the winning team dividing $3.2m (£2.5m) between the players.

The ITF is also promising an additional $4.9m (£3.9m) for nations competing below the elite level of the competition.

Briton Dan Evans reached the Eastbourne quarter-finals with a determined display to beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Evans, who trailed in the second set, won 6-3 7-5 to set up an all-British encounter with Kyle Edmund or Cameron Norrie.

Wimbledon starts on Monday, and Evans will head to the grass-court Grand Slam in good form after titles at Surbiton and Nottingham this month.

Top seed Guido Pella lost 6-4 3-6 6-4 to American Taylor Fritz.

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Meanwhile, Britain’s Liam Broady is one win away from the Wimbledon main draw after beating Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 6-4 6-7 (2-7) 6-2.

He faces France’s Gregoire Barrere, who is ranked 170 places higher at 117 in the world, in the final qualifying round on Thursday.

In women’s qualifying, Gabriella Taylor lost 6-4 7-6 (7-5) to Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure.

The Wimbledon draw takes place on Friday at 10:00 BST.

Martina Navratilova says the struggles faced by trans people are too often underestimated and wants sport to change its rules so trans athletes are not excluded.

The 18-time Grand Slam tennis champion was criticised earlier this year after using the word “cheating” when discussing whether trans women should be allowed to compete in women’s sport.

She later apologised but was dropped as an ambassador by LGBT sport body Athlete Ally.

Now the 62-year-old has made a BBC documentary exploring the issue.

For the film, The Trans Women Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova, she meets and discusses trans women in sport with a range of athletes, trans women and scientists.

“What I have come to realise, the biggest thing for me, is just the level of difficulty trans people go through cannot be underestimated,” she says.

“The fight for equality and recognition is just huge.”

She tells Trans Media Watch founder Helen Belcher: “I hurt people with my comments – that bothers me. I campaigned all my life for LGBT rights.”

Later she adds: “That being said, still for me the most important thing in sports – and we have to remember trans rights and elite sport are two different things, although of course they are connected – what’s the right way to set the rules so that everybody feels like they have a fighting chance?”

As well as hearing the experiences of trans athletes, she explores the science to find out whether trans athletes have a competitive advantage in women’s sport.

“It feels to me that it’s impossible to come to any real conclusions or write any meaningful rules until more research is done,” she says.

“But for now I think we need to include as many transgender athletes as possible within elite sports while keeping as level a playing field as possible.”

Sociologist Ellis Cashmore tells Navratilova sport will have to change in the same way other parts of society are adapting to gender fluidity – but admits he has been struggling “to figure an alternative”.

“I don’t think women’s sport will look the same in 10 years’ time,” he explains.

“I think a great many sports are going to have to come to terms with the fact they are going to have to mix sports – in other words, dissolve the binary completely and just say they’re open.”

“Society has changed so much. The rules certainly need to evolve,” Navratilova agrees.

“If you don’t adapt, you’ve got problems. So we’ll keep adapting and try to find a happy way forward.”

The Trans Women Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova will be shown on BBC One at 21:00 BST on Wednesday, 26 June and will then be available on BBC iPlayer.

British number one Johanna Konta’s final tournament before Wimbledon ended in defeat by world number 62 Ons Jabeur in the third round at Eastbourne.

Konta had led by a break in the first set before the Tunisian fought back to win 6-3 6-2.

French Open semi-finalist Konta has failed to transfer this season’s clay-court success on to grass, losing in the Birmingham second round last week.

Konta is the 19th seed for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday.

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Konta lets match slip away on greasy court

The start of the match had been delayed by around half an hour because of rain at Eastbourne and, when they came back on, the players had a brief discussion at the net about whether the surface was playable.

Konta wiped her hand on the grass and asked Jabeur what she thought, with the Tunisian shrugging but raising no objection.

The Briton got off to a good start, holding to love in her first service game before breaking for 3-2. But Jabeur broke back in the next game and grew in confidence.

Konta seemed tentative on the surface – as if not quite trusting that the court was dry enough – and she was punished for it by the Tunisian.

The Briton’s serving, which powered her through a clay-court season where she reached two WTA finals and the last four at Roland Garros, was below par – she won 60% of first-serve points and just 29% of second-serve points. That first figure had been well over 80% in recent weeks.

“I think the rain brought me luck and the win,” said Jabeur, who will face Alize Cornet for a place in the semi-finals. Frenchwoman Cornet beat China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2 6-2.

“I like the way I played. I like to make crazy shots. The crowd are very fair. Konta is a great player and has inspired me in the past. I hope the crowd can come with me now.”