Homan stays perfect at Players' Championship with 7-4 win over Wrana

TORONTO — Rachel Homan remained perfect at the Grand Slam of Curling's season-ending Players' Championship with an 8-3 win over Jennifer Jones in Thursday’s evening draw.

Tied 2-2 after three ends, Homan's Ottawa rink built a 5-2 lead after the fifth. Jones took one point in the sixth before Homan responded with three in the seventh to win the rematch of this year's Canadian women's championship final.

Homan, who led Canada to a world women's curling title last month, improved to 4-0 to tie Silvana Tirinzoni atop the women’s standings.

The Swiss skip took a 7-3 win over Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., (0-3) in Thursday's second draw.

Jones, a six-time Canadian champion, two-time world champion, Olympic gold medallist and 17-time Grand Slam winner, is stepping away from four-player curling after this tournament. Her Winnipeg rink fell to 1-3.

In other Draw 11 results, Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., (2-2) won 6-5 over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher (1-3), Scotland’s Ross Whyte (3-1) took a 7-5 decision against Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (1-3) and South Korea’s Gim Eun-ji (3-1) beat Switzerland’s Xenia Schwaller (1-3) by a score of 5-4.

Earlier Thursday, Homan earned a 7-4 win over Sweden's Isabella Wrana.

Homan had back-to-back one-point steals in the sixth and seventh ends to come out on top in what had been a back-and-forth affair up to that point.

Wrana rebounded with an 8-7 win over fellow Swede Anna Hasselborg (1-2) in Thursday's afternoon draw to improve her record to 3-1. The game was tied 7-7 after seven ends, but Wrana had the hammer in the eighth and made it count.

In other results from the afternoon session, Mike McEwen improved to 3-0 after scoring one in an extra ninth end for a 6-5 win over fellow Winnipegger Matt Dunstone (1-2). McEwen's team is the last unbeaten side in the men's competition.

Scotland's Bruce Mouat came back from a 5-3 loss to Bottcher with a 7-5 win over world men's champion Niklas Edin of Sweden. The result improved Mouat's record to 3-1 while Edin dropped to 1-2.

South Korea's Kim Eunjung (3-1) picked up her second win of the day, defeating Winnipeg's Kaitlyn Lawes 4-3. Lawes saw her record drop to 0-3.

Earlier in Thursday's second draw, men's world silver medallist Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L., improved to 2-1 with a 6-1 win over Calgary's Kevin Koe (1-2); Italy's Joel Retornaz (2-2) scored an 8-4 win over Scotland's James Craik (1-2); and Stefania Constantini of Italy (1-2) posted an 8-5 win over Japan's Satsuke Fujisawa (1-3).

In the other morning draw games, Whyte scored five over the first two ends in a 7-2 win over Dunstone, and Kim posted an 8-1 rout of Gim in a showdown of South Korean squads.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2024.