Sunday's FanFare

Briefly

Tennis

With her booming serve falling perfectly, top-seeded Venus Williams overpowered unseeded Lisa Raymond 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic. She will play for the title today against the winner of Saturday's evening match between Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters.

Juan Carlos Ferrero and Alex Corretja won semifinal matches, setting up an all-Spanish final in the $1 million Generali Open. The eighth-seeded Corretja defeated sixth-seeded Gaston Gaudio 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour, and second-seeded Ferrero beat 12th-seeded Mariano Zabaleta 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3.

Russian teen-ager Dinara Safina won her first WTA Tour title when Henrieta Nagyova quit during the final of the Prokom Open because of a foot injury. The 16-year-old Safina won the first set 6-3 and was leading 4-0 in the second when Nagyova stopped.

Justine Henin of Belgium has withdrawn from next week's Acura Classic in San Diego after breaking a finger in a match Tuesday. The No. 7-ranked player in the world, Henin suffered a small fracture of her left ring finger after falling during the second game of the third set of her match against Marissa Irvin at the Bank of the West Classic.

Track and field

Alesia Turova of Belarus broke her own world record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing in 9 minutes, 16.51 seconds during the BALT track and field meet. She set the old mark of 9:21.72 on June 12 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

People

The people have spoken

Arthur Blank, the new owner of the Atlanta Falcons, polled his fans on what they would like as entertainment during or after Falcon games. The breakdown:

James Brown, 42 percent.

Temptations, 10 percent.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, 5 percent.

None. Shut up and play football, 43 percent.

Verbatim

Notre Dame football coach Tyrone Willingham on his version of the definitive Notre Dame player: "I'm looking for a tough player, but not the kind you see in the world's toughest man competition, where they go into a barroom and fight and those types of things. I'm looking for the young man that, when he's between those stripes, that will take great pleasure in knocking your head off. I mean, literally, knocking your head off. Then, when the game's over, I'd like for him to have the toughness and the confidence to walk off the field and say, 'Please. Thank you. No, sir. Yes, ma'am.' "

Dan Daly of the Washington Times: "Before the end of the NFL season, some team's front four will be nicknamed the 'Eight-Legged Freaks.'"

San Francisco Chronicle reader Alex Kaseberg's thoughts on Playboy photospreads: "First it was the women of Enron, now the women of Arthur Andersen. Let's hope the WNBA doesn't go bankrupt."

-- From wire reports