Russia, Sweden top standings at Ford World Women’s Curling Championship

NORTH BAY, Ont. – Russia’s Victoria Moiseeva and her teammates scored five in the second end and slid to an impressive 8-4 win over Binia Feltscher of Switzerland (0-3) that kept Team Russia upbeaten at 3-0 Sunday at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship.

Team Russia is off to a perfect 3-0 start at the 2018 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship. (Photo, World Curling Federation/Jeffrey Au)

Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg and her team kept pace at 3-0 with a 9-1 win over Diana Gaspari of Italy (1-2). It was a smiling Moiseeva who came off the ice at the North Bay Memorial Gardens, knowing her team of third Uliana Vasileva, second Galina Arsenkina, lead Julie Guzieva, alternate Anna Sidorova and coaches Sergei Belanov and Yury Shuliko, that struggled to a 2-7 record at the recent Winter Olympics was playing the way she expected. “Really happy about the performance,” she said. “Of course it’s really nice to have three wins, but also to feel confident about the game we played. We beat three countries we lost to at the Olympics. I know it’s not the same teams, but you still keep that in mind and we really wanted to give our confidence back to us, so we believe in ourselves again.” Russia was up 7-2 after five ends but Switzerland kept playing after blanking the sixth and scoring singles in the seventh and eighth. “We don’t have the next game tonight, so we really didn’t think we should finish early,” said Moiseeva. “Probably if we had the evening game we would like to finish early. But we changed our tactics a little just because we were so much up. We just gave ourselves more easy shots and that’s why the score was closer at the end.” Meanwhile Olympic champion Hasselborg and her Team Sweden also keep rolling along with its third straight seven-end victory. “We are really enjoying ourselves,” Hasselborg said. “The crowd is amazing, we just love the atmosphere  and the team is really playing well.”

Jamie Sinclair’s U.S. team beat Scotland on Sunday afternoon at the 2018 Ford Worlds. (Photo, World Curling Federation/Jeffrey Au)

Sweden scored one in the second end and then stole seven points over the next three ends to build an 8-0 lead. It was the third straight time Sweden has won in seven ends. “It’s pros and cons,” Hasselborg said of the early endings. “It’s good because it’s a day we had back-to-back. Otherwise I think I like playing all the 10 ends so you learn how the ice develops during the game.” What matters, she added, was the team is off to a good start. “Especially it’s important that we’re playing well and that we’re comfortable with what we’re doing. Just have to keep focused.” In the other afternoon games, Tori Koana and her 2-0 Japanese teammates scored their second straight win, 9-2 over Angelina Jensen of Denmark (0-2) while Jamie Sinclair of the U.S. (2-1) scored two in the 10th to hand Hannah Fleming of Scotland her third straight loss, 8-6. Canada’s Jennifer Jones (2-0), South Korea’s EunJung Kim (2-0), China’s Yilun Jiang (1-1), Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic (0-2) and Germany’s Daniella Jentsch (0-2) had byes on Sunday afternoon. The 2018 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship continues with this evening’s draw at 7 p.m. ET. Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2018 Ford World Women’s are available at www.worldcurling.org/wwcc2018/livescores TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of Canada’s games at the 2018 Ford World Women’s. Go to www.tsn.ca/2017-18-curling-broadcast-schedule-1.593081 for the complete schedule. For ticket information for the 2018 Ford World Women’s, go to www.curling.ca/2018worldwomen/tickets/ This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2018worldwomen/?lang=fr