Homan keeps rolling at Players’ Championship with rout of Hasselborg

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TORONTO — Rachel Homan’s Ottawa rink continued its run of exceptional play Wednesday with a 7-1 win over Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg at the Grand Slam of Curling Players’ Championship.

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Homan needed just four ends to complete the victory, scoring three in the first and the fourth along with a steal of one in the second before Hasselborg conceded.

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Homan, who won Canada’s first women’s world curling title since 2018 last month, improved her record to 2-0 at the final Grand Slam stop of the season. Hasselborg fell to 1-1.

In other Draw 6 results, men’s world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden improved to 1-1 with a 7-2 win over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher (0-2). Edin did most of his damage late, scoring three in the sixth and stealing three in the seventh.

South Korea’s Gim Eun-ji improved to 2-0 with an 8-7 win over Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes (0-2), and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen also remained unbeaten at 2-0 with a 6-1 win over Ross Whyte (1-1).

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In the evening draw, Jennifer Jones and Brad Jacobs lost and dropped to 1-2 after posting victories in Wednesday’s early draw.

Winnipeg’s Jones fell 9-4 to Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa (1-2). Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., (2-1) handed Jacobs, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., an 8-5 defeat.

Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni improved to 3-0 with a 7-3 victory over fellow Switzerland native Xenia Schwaller (1-2) and Italy’s Joel Retornaz (1-2) earned a 6-3 win against Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (1-2) in other Draw 7 action.

Earlier, Jones and Jacobs had bounced back from lopsided tournament-opening losses.

Jones, who was defeated 9-2 by Sweden’s Isabella Wrana in Tuesday’s tournament-opening draw, scored one in the seventh end and stole two in the eighth for an 8-5 win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini.

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Jacobs scored two in the eighth end in a 6-5 win over Calgary’s Kevin Koe. He was at the wrong end of a rare curling shutout on Tuesday, losing 9-0 to Scotland’s Bruce Mouat.

The season-ending Players’ Championship will be the last Grand Slam event for Jones, who says she will retire from four-player curling.

Jones has won 17 Grand Slam titles along with six Canadian titles, two world championships and an Olympic gold medal over her career.

In other Draw 4 action, Xenia Schwaller posted a 6-4 win over Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., (0-2) and Scotland’s James Craik (1-1) scored one in an extra end for a 7-6 win over Yannick Schwaller.

In the day’s second draw, Mouat improved to 2-0 with an 8-5 win over Gushue.

Mouat cemented the victory with four in the eighth end and got a measure of revenge on Gushue, who defeated the Scotsman in the round robin and the semifinals en route to claiming the silver medal at last week’s men’s world championship.

Wrana (2-0) posted an 8-3 win over Fujisawa while Tirinzoni downed South Korea’s Kim Eunjung 6-4.

Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone evened his record at 1-1 with a 7-4 win over Retornaz.

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