 Japan's Team Sayaka Yoshimura (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) is playoff bound for the third time on Grand Slam ice. By: Cameron Sallaj The playoff picture at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto is taking form with all six women's teams decided for the knockout round. While it is still unclear where each team will finish, the names of Kim, Hasselborg, Homan, Tirinzoni, Ha and Yoshimura will all advance to Saturday's playoff matches. The final piece of the puzzle came in Friday afternoon's Draw 14 where Team Sayaka Yoshimura (3-2; Sapporo, JPN) faced Team Xenia Schwaller (0-5; Zurich, SUI). A win by the Japanese side earned them the final playoff berth while a loss meant they'd play in a tiebreaker against Sweden's Team Isabella Wrana (2-3). It was smooth sailing through the game for Yoshimura's squad of Kaho Onodera, Yuna Kotani and Anna Ohmiya as they never allowed Schwaller a chance to get on the board. After consecutive blanks in the first two ends, the team took back-to-back singles in three and fourth for a two-point edge. Another single was then added in five before swiping two more in the sixth, closing the game out with a strong 5-0 shutout. With the best last stone draw total in the field, Team Yoshimura will finish as low as fifth in the standings while favorable scores in Draw 15 could see them move as high as third. The top two teams overall advance directly to the semifinals while 3 plays 6 and 4 plays 5 in the quarterfinals. Coming up, undefeated Anna Hasselborg and Kim Eun-jung will look to lock up those semifinal berths as they face Silvana Tirinzoni and Rachel Homan respectively who are both at 3-1. The next draw from the 2025 AMJ Players' Championship gets underway at 7:30 pm ET Friday with streaming of every game available on HomeTeamLive. |
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Sweden's Anna Hasselborg (Photo: Anil Mungal) are the team to beat so far in Cortina with five straight wins to begin the competition.
