Swiss win Battle Royale!

Swiss beat back Sweden’s challenge to win early battle of contenders

Defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland served notice Sunday morning she is determined to hang on to her curling crown.

The Swiss skip took an early 4-1 lead and held on to improve her record to 2-0 after defeating arch rival Team Sweden, skipped by Anna Hasselborg (1-1), 8-7 at the 2022 BKT Tires & OK Tires Tire World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Nature’s Bounty, at CN Centre in Prince George, B.C.

It was an early battle between teams that have dominated world women’s curling for the past several years. Tirinzoni is a two-time world champion while Hasselborg won the 2018 Olympic gold medal and took bronze at the recent Beijing Games.

Skip Kerri Einarson’s Team Canada (1-1) from Gimli, Man., was idle Sunday morning in the 13-team round-robin competition. Team Canada plays skip Dilsat Yildiz and her team from Turkey (0-2) in the afternoon draw. It is the first appearance by a team from Turkey at the women’s world championship.

Joining the Swiss at the top of the table with 2-0 marks were Japan’s Ikue Kitazawa and EunJung Kim’s team from South Korea who both won Sunday morning. Japan defeated Italy’s Stefania Constantini (0-2) 9-2 while the Koreans posted a 7-2 win over Germany’s Daniela Jentsch (0-2). Both games were over after eight ends.

In the only other game Sunday morning, the Czech Republic, skipped by Alzbeta Baudysova, evened its record at 1-1 with a 10-9 win over Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison (0-2), who is making her debut at the world level. Scotland had battled back from an early 5-0 deficit.

Team Denmark, skipped by Madeleine Dupont, and skip Cory Christensen’s United States team had the morning bye after opening with wins Saturday. Team Norway (1-1), skipped by Marianne Roervik, also enjoyed the morning bye.

It’s been a good start for Tirinzoni who is supported by vice-skip Alina Paetz, who throws skip rocks, second Esther Neuenschwander, lead Melanie Barbezat and alternate Carole Howald. The Swiss will be looking to hold on to the world title they won last year in Calgary.

The 2022 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship continues with draws Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times PT).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2022 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS2 will provide coverage of the 2022 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2022 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2022worldwomen/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2022worldwomen/nouvelles/?lang=fr