Browne leads O’Meara by 2 at Senior Open

Golf: Unflappable Olin Browne fought off the heat to shoot a 65 and forge a two-shot lead over Mark O’Meara through Saturday’s third round of the U.S. Senior Open in Toledo, Ohio.

Browne, never a winner in his three years of competition since turning 50, set the tournament record for lowest score through 54 holes. After a record-tying 64 followed by a 69, he’s at 15-under 198.

O’Meara, winner of the 1998 Masters and British Open, had a 66 in a head-to-head duel. Playing in the same pairing, he pulled even with Browne with a birdie at the ninth hole but Browne had five birdies on the difficult back nine.

Heading into the final round, it’s apparently a two-man race. Six shots off the pace at 9-under 204 are Jeff Sluman (65), Peter Senior (68), Joey Sindelar (69) and Mark Calcavecchia (69).

• Masson leads Women’s British Open by two: Caroline Masson of Germany shot a 4-under 68 to double her lead to two strokes after the third round at the Women’s British Open in Carnoustie, Scotland.

The 22-year-old Masson made six birdies and held off a late charge from Yani Tseng.

• Kim shoots 62, leads by one stroke: Anthony Kim shot a 62 to take a one-stroke lead after the third round of the Greenbrier Classic in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Kim is at 10-under 130 on the Old White TPC course. Tour rookie Scott Stallings shot 66 to move into second place at 9 under. Gary Woodland (67) and Webb Simpson (69) are two shots back.

Villwock takes early lead in Columbia Cup

Hydroplane racing: Dave Villwock drove Spirit of Qatar to an easy victory in his first elimination heat at the Lamb Weston Columbia Cup in Kennewick.

Villwock took the lead in heat 1A coming out of the first turn and was never seriously challenged. He averaged 142.526 mph for the three-lap heat. J. Michael Kelly in Degree Men finished second in a close duel with J.W. Myers in Peters & May. Jeff Bernard drove Graham Trucking to first in heat 1B, with an average speed of 145.478 mph.

Williams, Bartoli reach Stanford final

Tennis: Serena Williams moved into the final of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calif., with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Sabine Lisicki.

It’s Williams’ first appearance in a final since winning the title at Wimbledon last year and her first final on American soil since losing to Victoria Azarenka in Miami in March 2009.

The unseeded and 169th-ranked Williams will meet third-seeded and ninth-ranked Marion Bartoli of France, who advanced when Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova withdrew from the other semifinal because of a strained abdominal muscle.

• Fish beats Harrison at Farmers Classic: Mardy Fish beat Ryan Harrison 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (3) in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Farmers Classic in Los Angeles. In the other semifinal, Ernests Gulbis, of Latvia, beat the United States’ Alex Bogomolov, Jr., 6-2, 7-6 (4).

• Verdasco, Granollers advance to final: Fernando Verdasco defeated top-seeded Nicolas Almagro 6-7 (2), 7-6 (2), 6-3 to set up an all-Spanish final against Marcel Granollers at the Swiss Open in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Verdasco is seeking his first title of the season.

• Cilic to play Dolgopolov in Croatia Open final: Marin Cilic defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in Umag, Croatia, to advance to the Croatia Open final against Aleksandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.

Second-seeded Dolgopolov beat Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-4, 6-4.

• Peer, Petrova advance to finals at Citi Open: Top-seeded Shahar Peer advanced to the finals at the Citi Open in College Park, Md., by defeating third-seeded Tamira Paszek of Austria 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 in a match that went more than three hours.

In the other semifinal match, second-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia beat American Irina Falconi 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Stay Thirsty wins $500,000 Jim Dandy

Horse racing: Javier Castellano scored two big wins in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., riding Stay Thirsty to victory in the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes for 3-year-olds and guiding Zagora to capture the $500,000 Diana Stakes for fillies and mares.

Stay Thirsty took control from front-running Dominus at midstretch and drew away to a four-length victory.

• Midday wins third straight Nassau Stakes: Midday underlined her star status by winning a third straight Nassau Stakes in Goodwood, England, finishing ahead of Snow Fairy.

Jockey Tom Queally bided his time before unleashing Midday, the 6-4 favorite, at the two-furlong marker to cruise to her sixth Group One victory.

Italy captures gold in men’s water polo

Water polo: Italy won the gold medal after beating Serbia 8-7 in extra time in men’s water polo at the world aquatic championships in Shanghai.

Earlier, Miho Boskovic scored four goals to lead Croatia to a 12-11 victory over Hungary for the bronze medal.

Spain beat the U.S. 11-10 for fifth place and Montenegro beat Germany 8-5 for seventh.