Sweden finishes Italy’s undefeated run in the World Mixed Double
Sweden gave Group A leaders Italy their first loss so far, in Tuesday afternoon’s 11th round. Sweden’s 7-4 win takes them straight into the playoffs as they now share second place with three other teams – Japan, Norway and Switzerland.
In the other matches of this session, Norway beat Switzerland 9-3; Japan won 11-3 over Korea; Denmark beat New Zealand 9-5; and Finland won over Estonia 9-4.
Sweden against Italy
In the match between Italy and Sweden, the score was 2-2 when Italy’s Stefania Constantini in the third end moved up one of her own stones on the button, to make a point.
But in the fourth end, Swedish Isabella Wranaa played a close encounter for two points that gave her team a 4-3 lead.
Sweden followed it up with a single steal in the fifth finish to 5-3.
Eventually, in the eighth end, Sweden’s Rasmus Wranaa made a heavy clear play to put the match beyond Italy, and the Swedes won 7-4.
After the match, Isabella Wranaa said, “We thought we needed to win this match to have a good chance of qualifying. We knew we had to play our best and concentrate on one stroke at a time. Obviously they have not lost in a long time. “Now we know they are really good. We wanted to start well and just keep going with every shot throughout the match.”
She added, “It’s nice to win against a really good team, but we still have to play against some more really good teams in the round robin. It’s going to be tough and we’ll have to play like this in every game now.”
Switzerland v Norway
Switzerland was in second place when they entered the ice to face Norway. This was a key game as both teams started looking towards playoff spots.
In the sixth end, Norway had created a lead of 5-3 and in the sixth, Norwegian Maia Ramsfjell played a draw to score four points and increase her lead to 9-3.
Switzerland acknowledged loss halfway into the next final. This win for Norway means that both of these teams are now in the four-team group that shares second place in the ranking.
Afterwards, Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell said, “They are a really good team, and we knew we had to play our best. So we continued to work on the goals we set early in the tournament and it clearly worked.”
His sister, Maia, added: “We have struggled with the ice before, but as the games have progressed we have gotten to know it much better. This game was much straighter than in previous matches, so we struggled to get around guards and play cranes, but overall I think we managed it after the first finishes, which was good. “
Korea vs. Japan
Japan opened the scoring in the first end when Matsumura Chiaki had a draw in the house and scored three points. Japan led 4-0 in the third end when Korea’s Kim Minji was looking to get back into the match with a big point. However, she could only score two points with one hit, as Japan led 4-2.
The Japanese continued to win 11-3 and now join the group of four teams that share second place.
After this win, Tanida Yasumasa said: “We had a very good start to this match. We prepared for it last night and focused on how the first end is very important. We tried to control the pull weight.”
He added, “We started with two losses, now we have four wins and two losses, so we are very happy. We will only continue tomorrow.”
New Zealand against Denmark
Denmark met New Zealand and in the fifth end, with the Danes leading 5-4, their female player, Jasmin Lander, played a hit into a hectic house and scored three points.
This led the Dane to an 8-4 lead.
Then, in the sixth end, New Zealand’s Natalie Thurlow played a hit-and-roll to make one and reduce the Danish lead to 8-5.
Denmark continued to win 9-5, a third victory so far that keeps their playoff jumps alive.
New Zealand is still without a win in the competition.
Estonia v Finland
In the fifth match of this session, Estonia played Finland.
In the fifth end, with the Finns ahead 5-1, Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee played a draw to score three points and reduce the Finnish lead to 5-4.
However, Finland responded in the next final, when Markus Sipilae also scored three points with a draw to an 8-4 lead.
Finland won 9-4, their second victory so far.
Estonia – as well as Korea – now has two wins and four losses.
Session 11 results: New Zealand 5-9 Denmark; Sweden 7-4 Italy; Switzerland 3-9 Norway; Estonia 4-9 Finland; Korea 3-11 Japan.
Get involved with the World Curling Federation during the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2022 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and look for the hashtags # WMDCC2022 #curling