By Jonathan Brazeau
LONDON, Ont. — Ross Whyte and his Scottish squad picked up where they left off in the AMJ Masters.
The defending men's champions opened their title defence with a 6-2 victory over Canada's Team John Epping on Tuesday at the Western Fair Sports Centre.
Whyte, who won his first career Grand Slam in last season's event, capitalized on misses from Epping throughout the match.
After Whyte was forced to a single in the second to open the scoring, Epping looked to hit and stick for two in the third, however, his shooter rolled out to count just one point.
Epping hit a guard in the fourth, allowing Whyte to draw for three points and earn some separation on the scoreboard with a 4-1 lead at the break.
Although Epping could have drawn for two in the fifth, he opted for a tricky tap to potentially score three. It was all risk and no reward, as Epping clipped his own rock and was limited to another single.
Whyte drew for one in the sixth and tacked on a single steal in the eighth as Epping's runback missed the mark.
Elsewhere in Draw 2, Germany's Team Marc Muskatewitz scored three in the first and four in the third during a 10-4 win over Switzerland's Team Marco Hösli.
In women's play, Japan's Team Sayaka Yoshimura scored a single in the eighth end to edge Sweden's Isabella Wranå 6-5.
Wranå's last rock of the eighth end didn't make it across the hog line, allowing Yoshimura to connect on a super short raise, tapping her rock to the back of the four-foot circle for the winning point.
Canada's Team Christina Black stole a single in the seventh and another in the eighth to hang on for a 7-5 win over Team Eun-jung Kim of South Korea.
UP NEXT
Round-robin play continues with Draw 3 at 3 p.m. ET / noon PT. Tickets are available at GSOCtickets.com with online streaming available at rockchannel.com.
Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins with Draw 10 Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.
NOTES
The AMJ Masters is the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams.
Preliminary play runs through to Friday with the top eight teams qualifying for the playoffs. If necessary, tiebreakers will be played Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are set for Saturday. Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.
There are no extra ends during preliminary play and the tiebreakers. If a game is tied after eight ends, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner. Teams receive three points for a regulation win (in eight ends or less), two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss. Extra ends return for the playoff rounds.
