Coco Gauff, Caty McNally win women’s doubles at Citi Open in Washington

American teens Coco Gauff and Caty McNally won their first pro tournament as a doubles team by beating the fourth-seeded duo of Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollar 6-2, 6-2 in the Citi Open final Saturday.

“For both of us,” Gauff said, “it means a lot.”

Gauff, a 15-year-old from Florida, and McNally, a 17-year-old from Ohio, only decided to team up for the hard-court tournament in the nation’s capital right before the deadline for entering the field.

“It was pretty much a last-minute thing,” McNally said.

They also won the junior doubles title at last year’s U.S. Open.

Gauff shot to fame with a breakthrough performance at Wimbledon last month, becoming the youngest player to get into the main draw at the All England Club via qualifying, then upsetting five-time champion Venus Williams along the way to reaching the fourth round. Gauff’s magical run ended with a loss to eventual champion Simona Halep.

McNally’s impressive showing in Washington included a run to the semifinals in singles — but that’s where it ended for her in that event Saturday with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 loss to Camila Giorgi of Italy. That came before McNally joined Gauff for the doubles final.

In her seventh career WTA final, Giorgi will face Jessica Pegula of the U.S.

The 79th-ranked Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, advanced to her second final by beating qualifier Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

The men’s singles semifinals were scheduled for Saturday night. Those matchups were top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas against Nick Kyrgios, and No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev against Peter Gojowczyk.

Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus will face Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the men’s doubles final Sunday.

AFL: The fourth-seeded Baltimore Brigade (7-5, 0-2) were defeated by the top-seeded Albany Empire in playoff action at Royal Farms Arena on Saturday night, 62-21. Albany advances to ArenaBowl 32 with an aggregate score of 123-47 in the AFL home-and-home playoff series.

Baltimore quarterback Shane Morris made his first career start and recorded new postseason highs in pass completions and passing yards and tied his previous high in touchdowns. He finished the night with 19 passes for 110 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. Veteran receiver Joe Hills has now scored a touchdown reception in 12 consecutive postseason games dating to 2013. He finished the regular season keeping his AFL-record streak alive with 103 consecutive games with a touchdown reception.

Maryland football: Maryland redshirt freshman defensive back Ken Montgomery has entered his name in the transfer portal, the school announced Saturday.

“I will be entering my name into the transfer portal in an effort to move closer to home as I deal with some personal issues,” Montgomery said in a statement issued by the program. “I want to thank Coach [Mike] Locksley and my teammates for a great experience at Maryland and I wish them nothing but the best.”

A Tampa, Fla., native, Montgomery did not appear in a game in 2018.

“We are in full support of Ken as he looks to move back closer to home,” Locksley said in a statement. “He was a model student and teammate since I took over the program and we will continue to support him in any way that we can.”

College football: Alabama coach Nick Saban denies offering a job to ex-Ohio State assistant Zach Smith last year, citing the results of a background check as the reason.

The Crimson Tide's connection with Smith surfaced with the release Friday of former Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer's texts and emails by Ohio State after an external investigation into what he knew about allegations of domestic violence made by Smith's ex-wife, Courtney Smith.

Meyer fired Smith in July 2018. Months earlier, Saban talked to Smith about a job, although accounts differ about whether an offer was extended.

“We talk to a lot of coaches about a lot of things,” Saban said Saturday at the Tide's media day. “I really never did offer this guy a job. We did interview him and he did a nice job in the interview. But it's when we did the background check, that we decided that it was a better opportunity to hire somebody else and that's what we did.”

The receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator job went instead to Josh Gattis.

Ohio State investigated Meyer and suspended him for mishandling previous issues involving Smith. Meyer retired after the 2018 season.