VENUS, SERENA BOTH ADVANCE

All in one fell swoop, Venus Williams eliminated one of the only two women who beat her younger sister this season and moved closer to a possible U.S. Open quarter-final showdown against Serena.

Venus reeled off the last five games and beat 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4 to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2010.

Bencic beat Serena last month en route to the Rogers Cup title in Toronto.

At 35, Venus is the oldest woman in the field. At 18, Bencic was the youngest to make it to the third round.

Serena notched her latest dramatic comeback Friday night, taking the last eight games for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over American wild-card entry Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

“I’m not trying to live on the edge,” said Serena, whose Round 4 opponent will be another American, 19th-seeded Madison Keys.

Venus will face 19-year-old Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, a qualifier ranked 152nd who beat Madison Brengle of the United States 6-2, 3-6, 6-0. Kontaveit hadn’t won a Grand Slam match until Monday.

Meanwhile, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., lost to Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 7-6, 6-3 in men’s thirdround action.

In other action, No. 1 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Marin Cilic moved into the fourth round.

Djokovic beat No. 25 Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 7-5, 7-5. Cilic put in a lot more work to edge Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-1.

Djokovic will play No. 23 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, whose opponent Friday, No. 14 David Goffin of Belgium, became the 13th man to stop playing a match because of injury or illness.