By Kevin Snow
A perfect start to the season for Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland came to a screeching halt on Sunday in a 6-4 loss to Canada’s Team Rachel Homan in the women’s final of the Grand Slam of Curling’s AMJ Masters in London, Ont.
Going back to their undefeated (6-0) title run at the Women's Masters Basel two weeks ago, Team Tirinzoni started the season with 12 consecutive wins. Team Tirinzoni was 4-0 (12 points) in pool play, the only women’s team to win all four of their games in regulation. That was followed by playoff wins over Team Xenia Schwaller (Switzerland) and Team Eun-ji Gim (South Korea) to move them into the championship.
Tirinzoni led 3-2 after four ends in the final before Homan’s squad put up a pair in each of the fifth and sixth ends to pull away for good.
“We practised a lot in the summer, and it’s nice to see that what we were working on is actually working. We worked a lot on our technique, and I think everyone is throwing better than last year,” Tirinzoni said earlier in the week. “You don’t expect to win every time out, but you hope to perform to the best of your ability in every game. That’s what we want to keep building on.”
Elsewhere, it was an all-Swedish quarterfinal contest between Team Anna Hasselborg (3-1, nine points) and Team Isabella Wranå (2-2, seven points). Wrana jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on their way to a decisive 8-3 victory. They were eventually eliminated in a 7-5 loss to Homan in the semifinals.
Schwaller was 2-2 (six points) in pool play before losing to Tirinzoni in the quarterfinals. Despite the loss, this was the first time Schwaller’s team had qualified for the playoffs in a Grand Slam event.
Team Stefania Constantini of Italy ended pool play with a 1-3 (three points) record and was the only European squad not to advance to the playoff round.
MEN'S DIVISION
Team Ross Whyte’s lone loss of the week was a tough one, as they were defeated 6-4 in an extra end by Team Matt Dunstone of Canada in the AMJ Masters men’s final on Sunday. Dunstone took out Whyte’s shot rock to score two and deny the Scottish skip’s attempt at defending his Masters’ title.
Whyte earned all 12 points during an undefeated 4-0 run through the preliminary round and then used a steal of the final point to defeat Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller (2-2, six points) in the quarterfinals. He would then face a familiar foe in Team Bruce Mouat (2-2, seven points) in the semifinals, a rematch of last year’s Scottish Curling Championships final that Whyte won. History would repeat itself as Whyte scored two in the eighth end for a come-from-behind 6-5 win to advance.
Team Joël Retornaz of Italy was bounced in the quarterfinals after Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs scored one on the final stone of the game to claim a 4-3 victory. Retornaz was 4-0 (11 points) in pool play, with their only blemish being a 6-5 shootout win over Team Korey Dropkin of the United States.
It was a difficult start to Grand Slam season for Team Niklas Edin of Sweden. After finishing with a 2-2 record (six points) in the highly competitive Pool B, they lost 7-5 to Schwaller in a tiebreaker on Saturday morning.
Norway's Team Magnus Ramsfjell went 2-2 (seven points) in pool play but were defeated 6-3 in the quarterfinals by the eventual champion, Team Dunstone.
Team Marc Muskatewitz (Germany) and Team Marco Hösli (Switzerland) each missed the playoff round with records of 1-3.
