Serena Williams beats Venus, 6-1, 6-2

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Serena Williams routed Venus Williams, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup on Saturday at Charleston, S.C.

It was the most one-sided match in the sisters’ rivalry and the 14th straight match that the younger sister has won in the tournament.

The top-ranked woman will play for her second straight title in this tournament Sunday against Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic, the 2007 champion, defeated Stefanie Voegele, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2, in the other semifinal.

This was the first time since 2009 the Williams sisters were playing each other in a tournament. Serena has won five straight in their series and leads 14-10. Serena was encouraged to see her older sister reach the semifinals after her struggles the last 18 months in dealing with an autoimmune disease.

“We’ve definitely been through a lot since our last match. But, yeah, we all come together at the end and we just try to love each other like we always do,” Serena said.

Serena surged to a 4-0 lead and won the first set in 22 minutes. Venus, who withdrew from her previous event because of back problems, picked up her game a bit in the second set, but it was hardly enough.

The matchup drew a crowd of 9,538 to the stadium, a single-session record since the tournament moved from Hilton Head to Charleston in 2001.

The United States trails Serbia, 2-1, in a Davis Cup quarterfinal at Boise, Idaho, after the top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan lost to Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 4-6, 15-13.

Fans in the arena were on the edge of their seats as the match lasted 4 hours 23 minutes.

The Bryans have a 20-4 record together in Davis Cup doubles and have lost their last two Davis Cup matches in five sets this year — the only two times they’ve played five-set matches in Davis Cup action.

ETC.

Horschel keeps his lead in Texas Open

Billy Horschel overcame the strong Texas wind and is one round away from his first PGA Tour win.

Horschel held off an experienced leaderboard to shoot two-under-par 70 and take a two-shot lead entering the final round of the Texas Open at San Antonio.

Horschel, who also held the lead after the second round, battled through the gusting wind to reach 10 under overall — two shots ahead of Jim Furyk and Charley Hoffman.

The Florida native was second at last week’s Houston Open and extended his PGA Tour-best streak of consecutive made cuts to 21 this week.

Rory McIlroy shot a one-under 71 and is four shots back. McIlroy tied for the low round on Friday with a 67, but he was inconsistent off the tee on Saturday and had four birdies and three bogeys.

Verrazano crossed his final bridge on the road to the Kentucky Derby with a narrow victory in the $1-million Wood Memorial at New York that probably sends the colt to Churchill Downs as the horse to beat on the first Saturday in May.

Sweeping into the lead around the far turn, Verrazano held off the challenges of Vyjack and Normandy Invasion and improved his record to 4-0. The 3-year-old trained by Todd Pletcher won by three-quarters of a length over Normandy Invasion, who nipped Vyjack for second and probably punched his ticket to the Derby.

Barry Alvarez has a new contract that will keep him as the athletic director of the University of Wisconsin for the next five years.

Alvarez had an additional year tacked onto his existing deal and he was given a $25,000 raise, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. That puts his compensation for 2013-14 at $1.05 million and keeps him among the highest-paid athletic directors in the country.

UW Athletics will pay $500,000 of that salary. The rest is from gift funds at the UW Foundation.

A 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card has been sold for more than $2.1 million at auction.

The T206 card, originally released by the American Tobacco Co., went for $2,105,770.50 in an online sale, Goldin Auctions said. Although the company said the price was a record for a baseball card sold at auction, a similar Wagner card in mint condition was purchased for $2.8 million in a private sale in 2007.