By Jonathan Brazeau
Well, this worked out for Ross Whyte last season.
When we looked at which skips could win their first Grand Slam of Curling title ahead of 2024-25, we pegged Ross Whyte as our top candidate. Lo and behold, Whyte completed the feat at the Masters, defeating Brad Jacobs in the men’s final.
So, with the AMJ Masters only a week away, let’s press our luck again and begin this week’s Eight Ends column by looking at five skips who could become first-time Grand Slam title winners this season.
FIRST END: Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller is a two-time finalist in the series, with both games coming down to the wire at the Players’ Championship.
His team was up by two points in the eighth end during the 2023 men’s final, but without last-rock advantage, Schwaller got Koe’d. That’s right, skip Kevin Koe did what Kevin Koe does and made an amazing shot — and with his thinking time clock close to running out, of course — to score three points and win 5-4.
Team Schwaller returned to the Players’ Championship men’s final last season and faced Scotland’s Team Mouat in a rematch of the gold medal game from the World Men’s Curling Championship. This time, Schwaller held the hammer in the eighth end trailing by two, but he couldn’t pull a Koe and scored only two points to force an extra end. Team Mouat prevailed in the extra to win 6-5.
Considering Schwaller has come within a shot of winning two finals, maybe the third time will be the charm?
The world No. 2 club is off to a strong start this season, winning the Trentino World Cup and finishing runner-up in the Baden Masters and AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic events while sporting an 18-3 total record.
Although Schwaller seeks his first Grand Slam title, fourth Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel won the Canadian Open in 2018 with skip Peter de Cruz.
SECOND END: How’s this for a bold prediction? A double Schwaller Grand Slam win.
Xenia Schwaller, Yannick’s cousin, has been tearing it up on tour with her Swiss squad over the past couple of years. Schwaller claimed four tour titles and the world junior gold medal in 2023-24, and followed that up by capturing four more championships last season.
The team is off to a red-hot start in 2025-26, adding two more trophies to the haul at the Oslo Cup and AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic, while sporting an impressive 16-1 record through three events. Schwaller is now ranked No. 10 in the world.
The knock against Schwaller is that her team hasn’t qualified for the playoffs in a Grand Slam of Curling event, yet. Emphasis on “yet” because you get the feeling that once they break through, they’re going to go all the way.
THIRD END: Eun-jung Kim had a solid run in the Grand Slam of Curling last season, reaching four consecutive semifinals. The problem? Kim ran into world No. 1 Team Homan in three of those semis. You can probably figure out what happened there.
The South Korean club, No. 5 in the world rankings, also made it to the quarterfinals of the Tour Challenge. Take a guess who Kim faced that time.
Still, playoff consistency makes Team Kim a likely candidate here, just as long as Team Homan is on the other side of the bracket.
FOURTH END: Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura is a one-time Grand Slam finalist (2019 Masters) and two-time Tour Challenge Tier 2 finalist (2018 and 2024) in the series.
Her team qualified for the playoffs in two Grand Slam of Curling events last season, but ran into the same problem Kim had. Both times Yoshimura and Homan met in the quarterfinals, Homan emerged victorious. Making matters worse: Homan won both games via steals.
The world No. 8 Yoshimura is coming off a spirited victory in the Japanese Olympic curling trials. After a 0-2 start in the double round-robin against Team Ueno and Team Fujisawa, Yoshimura won two straight games, and all three teams finished with identical 2-2 records. Ueno advanced based on shootout scores, while Yoshimura eliminated Fujisawa 7-2 in a tiebreaker game. Since round-robin records carried over, that turned the best-of-five final into a best-of-three scenario. Ueno took the first match by a convincing 11-3 score, but Yoshimura rallied once more, winning the final two games 7-6 and 6-5.
Team Yoshimura will compete in the Olympic Qualification Event, Dec. 6-13 in Kelowna, B.C., to earn a spot for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina.
FIFTH END: Skip Marc Muskatewitz could become the first to guide a German-based team to a Grand Slam title victory.
The world No. 8 Muskatewitz has already won a major tournament, taking gold at the European Curling Championships last season in an upset over Mouat.
The team made its Grand Slam of Curling series debut last season in the Tour Challenge Tier 2 event. Even though Muskatewitz bowed out in the quarterfinals, his team earned enough ranking points to reach the top flight for the National in late November. Muskatewitz fit right in by reaching the quarterfinals. Another run to the quarterfinals at the Masters in January cemented Muskatewitz’s status as one to watch.
Agree or disagree? Let us know on social media if you think any of these five will win their first Grand Slam title this season ... or if there's someone else who could achieve the feat.
SIXTH END: Everything’s coming up Epping.
John Epping not only skipped his Toronto-based team to the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic men’s title this past weekend, but he also helped coach Xenia Schwaller’s team to the women’s title.
Epping defeated Yannick Schwaller 6-3 in the men’s final, while Xenia Schwaller beat Madeleine Dupont’s team from Denmark 8-5 in the women’s final. Both teams posted perfect records, with Epping winning eight straight games en route to victory, and Schwaller winning seven straight.
Team Epping, 14-3 on the season, leapfrogged Team Gushue for No. 9 in the world rankings and is carrying momentum into the AMJ Masters
SEVENTH END: Team Homan’s title defence at the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic ended with an 8-1 loss to Dupont in the women’s semifinals. Things went from bad to worse after the Ottawa-based club gave up a single steal in the fifth end to trail 3-1. Skip Rachel Homan missed a runback in the sixth, conceding five points, and out came the handshakes.
Just to put into perspective how uncommon this was: It was only the third time since the start of the 2023-24 season that Team Homan didn’t reach the final. The other two events — the 2023 Tour Challenge and 2024 Players’ Championship — were Grand Slam of Curling events.
When you can count on one hand the number of tournaments you've played in over two-plus seasons and didn’t reach the final, and still have a couple of digits left over, you’re doing something amazing.
EIGHTH END: Team Tirinzoni and Team Jacobs also jumped out of the gate this past weekend. Tirinzoni took the Women’s Masters Basel in Basel, Switzerland, while Jacobs captured the ATB Okotoks Classic in Okotoks, Alta.
So, which teams are still in the barn? Reigning Masters women’s champ Team Hasselborg will take to the ice this weekend at the KW Fall Classic in Waterloo, Ont. That leaves Team Gushue. The St. John’s, N.L., club will be the last of the top teams to hit the ice this season at next week’s AMJ Masters.
By comparison, the AMJ Masters will be Team Xu's fifth event already.
It's interesting to see how teams have built their schedules, given that it is an Olympic season. It's all about what they think will work best toward peaking at the right time.
EXTRA END: Speaking of which, the excitement is building for the AMJ Masters, taking place Sept. 23-28 at the Western Fair Sports Centre in London, Ont. Full-event and weekend passes plus single draw tickets are available at masters.goigniter.com.
Don’t forget, the event also includes a Tier 2, happening Sept. 24-27 at the St. Thomas Curling Club in St. Thomas, Ont., and the GSOC Wheelchair Curling Invitational, Sept. 24-27 at the KW Curling Club in Waterloo, Ont. The finals for the Tier 2 and the GSOC Wheelchair Curling Invitational will join the top-tier AMJ Masters on Sept. 28 at the Western Fair Sports Centre.
Can't make it to London? Live streaming for all Tier 1 games, plus the Tier 2 finals and GSOC Wheelchair Curling Invitational medal games, will be available for free here on thegrandslamofcurling.com. Fans in Canada can also watch live on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ from Sept. 25-28.
