Swinney furious about FSU game
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney said his team met the medical standard to play Saturday’s Atlantic Coast Conference game Florida State and believes the Seminoles called off the matchup because of reasons other than COVID-19. “This game was not canceled because of COVID. COVID was just an excuse to cancel the game,” an angry Swinney said Sunday night. The fourth-ranked Tigers (7-1, 6-1), nearly five-touchdown favorites, were already in Tallahassee on Friday when they learned a reserve offensive lineman had tested positive in the team’s latest testing. Clemson quickly isolated the unidentified player and sent him back to campus. Swinney said the Tigers had eaten breakfast under a large tent in their hotel parking lot Saturday morning when they learned they would not play the Seminoles ( 2- 6, 1- 6). “To me, the Florida State administration forfeited the game, and if they want to play Clemson, in my opinion, they need to come to Clemson or they need to pay for all expenses,” Swinney said. The trip cost the school’s athletic department about $300,000, Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich said.
GOLF
› ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Robert Streb made an eight-foot par putt to stay alive in a playoff and ended it on the second extra hole Sunday with a pitching wedge shot that put the ball within an inch of the cup, giving him a victory over Kevin Kisner in the RSM Classic. The 33-yearold from Oklahoma won for the second time on the PGA Tour, with his first title coming six years ago, also in a playoff at Sea Island Golf Club. Streb rallied from a five-shot deficit in 2014. This time, he lost a three-stroke lead, but then his 6-iron shot put the ball 12 feet away from the par-3 17th hole, and he converted the birdie putt on the way to a closing 2-under 68 that forced extra holes on the Seaside Course. Kisner, a 36-year-old from South Carolina whose first of three PGA Tour titles came at Sea Island in 2015, closed with a 63 as he and Streb finished regulation at 19-under 263, one shot ahead of Cameron Tringale (62).
Andrew Landry (64) and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger (63) shared fourth at 17 under, and the four-way tie for sixth at 16 under included Harris English, whose bogeyfree day allowed him to match Tringale for the final round’s best score and rocket 13 spots up the leaderboard from his 54-hole position. Fellow former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer Keith Mitchell (69) shared 44th at 8 under.
TENNIS
› LONDON — Daniil Medvedev did not travel an easy path to the biggest title of his career at the ATP Finals: He beat third- ranked Dominic Thiem for the championship after earlier getting past No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Rafael Nadal. By switching tactics and coming back for a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Thiem in Sunday’s final at O2 Arena, No. 4 Medvedev became the first player to defeat each of the men ranked first through third in the season-ending event — and only the fourth to do so at any tour event since 1990. In the process, the 24-year-old Russian also beat the champion of each of the Grand Slam tournaments held this year: Djokovic (Australian Open), Nadal (French Open) and Thiem (U.S. Open). The indoor hard court win against 27-year-old Thiem, who’s from Austria, followed those against Djokovic in round-robin competition and Nadal in Saturday’s semifinals. Medvedev went 5-0 in all, quite a turnaround from a year ago, when he was 0-3 at the ATP Finals. Because of the pandemic, no spectators were present as the tournament ended its 12-edition stay in London before heading to Turin, Italy, next year. Medvedev closed 2020 by going 10-0 in November, including seven wins against players ranked in the top 10; he had zero top-10 victories in the preceding 12 months.