Sweden and Italy secure fifth wins
Sweden beat Canada 6-2 in Saturday afternoon’s eighth Mixed Doubles round robin session to win their second victory of the day, after defeating Switzerland, 6-1, in the morning. This kept them in a clear second place in the rankings and keeps the pressure on the leader Italy, who won 7-3 over Australia in this session.
The other winners of the session were the United States, which beat China 7-5, and the United Kingdom, 8-3 winners over the Czech Republic.
In the match against Canada, Sweden opened with two simple steals. In the third, Canada’s Rachel Homan tried an angle increase that did not really work and she had to settle for just one point to reduce Sweden’s finish to 2-1. Good Swedish game in the fourth end, Almida de Val left with a simple equalizer to score three points and take a 5-1 lead into the break. The team exchanged singles in the fifth and sixth finals, and then Canada conceded, with the final score 6-2.
After today’s second victory, Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson said, “I am pleased with our achievements today, make many shots and make it tough for our opponents. That is the key to mixed doubles – it is difficult to make every shot, so … just put in the press. ”
With Sweden breathing down their necks, it was more important than ever that round robin leader Italy maintained its undefeated record when they met Australia in this session.
However, their game did not start well, as they gave up a steal of one in the beginning. They then bounced back with two points in the second and had a steal of one in the third when Australia’s Tahli Gill caught a front guard with his last stone. The Italians led 4-3 when they played the seventh final, and their female player Stefania Constantini had the task of pulling to three to extend her team’s lead to 7-3. Australia then conceded the match.
Speaking later, Constantini said: “You can not play 100 percent all the time, so the important thing is to be able to handle what happens and handle the scoreboard. I think the seventh end was very important where we managed to keep a big gap of four points to relax to the last. “
This was a fifth victory in five matches for Italy and it keeps them at the top of the table. Sweden, in a clear second place, is the only other team to have five wins, but they have also recorded two losses, after playing two games more than the Italians.
Behind these two, Great Britain is in third place, thanks to their 8-3 win over the Czech Republic in this session. The British duo dominated the first half of the match, making two in the second end and stealing three in the third when a selection attempt by Czech Zuzana Paulova just tickled her goal and rolled out of the house, giving Britain a 5- 1 lead.
Great Britain was up 6-3 when they played the seventh end and secured their win with two more points to complete an 8-3 win that gives them four wins and a losing record.
Britain’s male player Bruce Mouat spoke later, saying: “We came to gain weight much earlier than we normally have. It was probably the biggest thing for us. We also played a really good match during this time.”
In the fourth match of the session, the USA met China and the team was tied 3-3 when they went into the fourth final break. The Americans scored three points in the fifth end to take a 6-3 lead, but China responded well in the sixth end, when their female player Fan SuYuan played a nose-hit to reduce the American lead to 6-5. USA female player Vicky Persinger then scored a point with a hit in the seventh end to give her team its third win so far, 7-5.
After this win, American male player Chris Plys spoke of his Chinese opponents, “They were right there. They got us in trouble a few times, and managed to do a couple of good things to get out of trouble. They’re a good curling team – we just did a couple of big shots. ”
Mixed double session eight results: China 5-7 USA; Czech Republic 3-8 United Kingdom; Sweden 6-2 Canada; Australia 3-7 Italy
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