Sports Digest: Shiffrin set for first race after 10 month break - pressherald.com

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Ending her 10 month break from racing, Mikaela Shiffrin is set to go first in the World Cup slalom on Saturday, while the Sweden team has gone into quarantine and will miss both races this weekend.

According to the official start list released by FIS on Friday, Shiffrin was given No. 1 during the bib draw for the slalom season opener.

Another women’s slalom on the Black Levi course is scheduled for Sunday.

Shiffrin, a double Olympic and three-time overall World Cup champion, hasn’t raced since January.

The American’s season was cut short in February as she took a five-week break from racing following the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, when the remainder of the season was canceled amid the coronavirus outbreak.

TENNIS

ATP FINALS: Novak Djokovic reached the semifinals at the ATP Finals and eliminated Alexander Zverev on Friday by beating the German 6-3, 7-6 (4), ensuring the top four players in the world advanced at the season-ending event for the first time since 2004.

The top-ranked Djokovic set up a match against Dominic Thiem on Saturday as he goes for a record-tying sixth title at the tournament, and a first since 2015.

Rafael Nadal will take on Daniil Medvedev in the other semifinal match.

COLLEGES

FOOTBALL: Seventh-ranked Cincinnati’s game against No. 25 Tulsa has been moved again in a shuffling of the American Athletic Conference football schedule.

The Bearcats and Golden Hurricane are now set to play Dec. 12, a week before the planned date of the conference championship game. The game was originally scheduled for Oct. 17, then moved to Dec. 4.

The AAC also announced new dates for five other games postponed because of COVID-19 issues. The first is Memphis at Navy on Nov. 28.

Three games have been set for Dec. 5: Houston at SMU, Memphis and Tulane and Tulsa at Navy. Houston at Memphis was rescheduled for Dec. 12.

COVID-19: Tennessee athletic director and former Volunteers football coach Phillip Fulmer said he is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19. And Miami’s Manny Diaz became the latest active coach to announce he has contracted the virus.

Fulmer, 70, posted on Twitter that he is “feeling fine” and was deemed not to have been in close contact with any Tennessee athletes or “sport-specific staff members.”

Tennessee plays at No. 23 Auburn on Saturday.

Fulmer is a College Football Hall of Famer who coached the Vols for 17 years and won a national championship 1998. He has been Tennessee’s AD since 2017.

Diaz made a similar social media post earlier to announce he tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating. Diaz, 46, said he will work virtually with the No. 12 Hurricanes until he can return to the field.

• Washington State starting quarterback Jayden de Laura has tested positive for COVID-19 and won’t play in Saturday’s game at Stanford, according to a published report Friday.

The Spokesman-Review said de Laura might also miss the Nov. 27 game against Washington if he is placed in a 14-day quarantine.

Sports information director Bill Stevens declined to comment on the report Friday.

Redshirt sophomore Cammon Cooper and redshirt freshman Gunner Cruz are listed as backups to de Laura on the team’s depth chart. Neither has ever taken a snap in a game for the Cougars (1-1).

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