CurlingZone: Retornaz earns first win in Draw 7 of Players'

World number one ranked Joel Retornaz (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) did not have the best start to the 2024 Players' Championship but is now in the win column following a win Wednesday night.

By: Cameron Sallaj

After a bronze medal finish at the world championship last week in Schaffhausen, Joel Retornaz and his Italian squad of Amos Mosaner, Sebastiano Arman and Mattia Giovanella did not have an ideal start to the final Grand Slam of the season, dropping their first two games to Mike McEwen and Matt Dunstone.

On the brink of elimination, the Italian rink needed a win against Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller to remain in contention of reaching another Grand Slam final.

Things remained even throughout the first half of the game between the two sides. The Swiss scored first with two in the second which was immediately followed by two in the third by the Italians. The two teams then traded singles through the next two ends, remaining tied 3-3 after five.

Into the sixth, Team Retornaz took their first lead of the game with a two-point steal. The team from Trentino then stole another point in seven to give themselves a three-point lead coming home, a deficit which proved insurmountable for the Swiss.

The Retornaz rink have been the most dominant men's team on the Grand Slam tour this season, picking up the first three events of the season. They then had a quarterfinal finish at the Canadian Open in January.

Now at 1-2, the team still has work to do to reach the knockout stages of the event. They will need to pick up victories against the Scottish rinks of James Craik and Ross Whyte to put themselves in position to advance.

Team Y. Schwaller is also now 1-2 following the loss with Whyte and McEwen still to play.

In other scores Wednesday night, Newfoundland and Labrador's Brad Gushue picked up an 8-5 win against Winnipeg's Brad Jacobs. The Canadian champions scored two three enders in the game while Jacobs could only convert with one of four hammers.

In an all-Swiss battle on the women's side, Team Silvana Tirinzoni became the first team to reach a 3-0 record, taking down the Swiss junior rink of Xenia Schwaller 7-3. Tied after five, Tirinzoni broke things open with three in the sixth followed by a steal in seven.

Team X. Schwaller slipped to 1-2.

Finally, Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa avoided elimination with a 9-4 thrashing of Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones. Both teams are now 1-2.

The Princess Auto Players' Championship continues with Draw 8 Thursday morning at 8:00 AM Eastern Time. Sportsnet's TV coverage begins during Draw 9 at 11:30 AM ET.

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