 Alberta's Brad Jacobs (Photo: Grand Slam of Curling) defeated Italy's Joel Retornaz 4-3 to advance to the semi-finals at the AMJ Masters in London, Ontario. By Connor Simms, #3 World-Ranked Brad Jacobs, with Marc Kennedy at third, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert on the front end, are looking to win their first slam title as a team. In their first season as a team last season, they made two slam finals, losing both. Brad also looks to complete his career slam titles as a skip, never winning the Masters. This week at the AMJ Masters, Jacobs finished the round robin with a 2-2 record. In their opening game, they defeated Saskatchewan's Rylan Kleiter 9-4. They then followed with back-to-back losses to Northern Ontario's John Epping, 6-5 and Scotland's Ross Whyte, 6-1. In their final round robin game, they dominated Sweden's Niklas Edin 10-1. Their record was good enough for a tiebreaker matchup with Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen, where they defeated them 5-2. This set up a quarter-final matchup with Italy's Joel Retornaz. Retornaz started with the hammer due to their better round robin record. After a blank in the first end, Jacobs stole one in the second end, after Retornaz missed the tap attempt against four. In the third end, Retornaz was forced to make a draw to the side of the four-foot against five Jacobs counters. After a blank in the fourth end, Jacobs executed a hit off two wide stones and rolled both rocks into the rings for two points. After a blank in the sixth end, Retornaz made a slash double for two to tie the game at three. Jacobs made the hit and stick in the open rings in the eighth end to win 4-3. In other quarterfinal action, Manitoba's Matt Dunstone defeated Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell 6-3, Scotland's Ross Whyte defeated Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller 6-5, and Scotland's Bruce Mouat defeated Northern Ontario's John Epping 3-2. Jacobs will now face Manitoba's Matt Dunstone in the semi-finals at 7:30 pm Eastern Time (ET). Scotland's Ross Whyte will face Scotland's Bruce Mouat in the other semi-final. Watch all the games live of the Grand Slam of Curling on the Rock Channel. Find the link to each game by clicking the red play button next to the linescore on the CurlingZone website. |
A five at the opening end of their first-ever match together in a major international competition sent Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce on their way to a dominant victory over the USA at the ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva.
