By Jonathan Brazeau
SASKATOON — As it turned out, the third time was the charm for Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller in Grand Slam of Curling finals.
After finishing runner-up twice, Schwaller scored his first career Grand Slam men's title, defeating Scotland's Ross Whyte 7-4 during Sunday's final at the HearingLife Canadian Open.
Schwaller helped complete a Swiss sweep of the Tier 1 titles as Silvana Tirinzoni's squad secured the women's championship earlier in the day, beating Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa 7-1.
"I've never thought about it that this can happen throughout the week, but all of a sudden we were there yesterday, we said to each other, ‘Let's make history today,'' Schwaller said.
"I'm happy for the women's team that it worked out because they had three losses this year in a Slam final and then now both teams got it done and at the same time. It's historic and it's very cool for Switzerland."
It was sweeps week as the team of Schwaller, fourth Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, second Sven Michel and lead Pablo Lachat-Couchepin posted a perfect 7-0 record through the tournament to collect $42,000 from the prize pool.
"It's awesome. We fought hard to put us in positions where we can win championships, and I guess we are there," Schwaller said. "I'm so proud of the boys and also (coach) Glenn Howard. Everybody stepped up and put in work and reflected.
"We got through finally to win one and the long road really makes it worth it. Finally winning as a group in that group is special. It's cool."
That undefeated mark gave Schwaller the hammer to start. Offence was hard to come by in the first half, with the teams trading singles back and forth through the first four ends.
Schwarz-van Berkel was on fire in the fifth to break the game wide open, delivering a stick of dynamite into a quarry on his first to eliminate three of Whyte's rocks and sit two, then pulling off a double on his last to score four and make it 6-2.
"Two very good shots, yeah, for sure. I threw them well. I felt very good in this game, I have to be honest, and I thought it was perfect," Schwarz-van Berkel said. "I didn't think we would have to carve it that much, but Sven carved the hell out of it. We just managed to score four and that was the game right there, so that was a great team effort for sure."
"Yeah, it's awesome," Schwaller added. "The first one really needed to be, I think, exactly how we hit it in order to lie two, maybe we could have even lied three, but then we had the beautiful in-off for four.
"Pulse was higher for the whole team. We said to each other after like, OK, breathe, another three ends to go. Yeah, awesome. He really clutched."
Whyte looked to cut the deficit in half in the sixth with a cross-house double for two, however, his shooter slid out the side door and it was just for one.
That took the wind out of the sails, but Whyte didn't give up, stealing one in the seventh, and forcing Schwarz-van Berkel to hit against two counters with the last rock of the game in the eighth end.
Schwarz-van Berkel was the only player on the team who had captured a Grand Slam title previously, winning the Canadian Open once before in January 2018.
"I'm very happy for the guys," Schwarz-van Berkel said. "I don't know what to say. We've been trying for a couple of years now, had a few breaks, but this time it worked out.
"We had a good week. We had the hammer throughout the playoffs, so that helped. I’m just very happy that we could manage to win one for the guys."
The team of Whyte, third Robin Brydone, Second Craig Waddell and lead Euan Kyle were playing in their second Grand Slam final this season, after finishing runner-up to Team Matt Dunstone at the AMJ Masters in September. Whyte, who also lost to Schwaller during the round-robin, banked $30,000 from the purse.
Norway's Team Magnus Ramsfjell won the Tier 2 men's title with a 9-6 victory over Switzerland's Team Michael Brunner.
Earlier, Victoria's Team Taylor Reese-Hansen stole singles in the seventh, eighth and extra ends to edge Winnipeg's Team Kaitlyn Lawes 6-5 in the all-Canadian Tier 2 women's final.
UP NEXT
The Grand Slam of Curling returns right after the holiday break in the new year with the Crown Royal Players' Championship. The fifth and final Grand Slam event of the season, and the final tune-up before the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, runs Jan. 6-11 at the Southeast Event Centre in Steinbach, Man.
