Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa completed a comeback to defeat China’s Team Rui Wang 5-4 Wednesday morning in the AMJ Masters.
Fujisawa’s record is now level at 1-1 in the first Grand Slam of Curling tournament of the season, taking place at the Western Fair Sports Centre.
Trailing by two in the seventh end, Fujisawa made a double takeout, and her shooter hung around at the edge of the rings to count the tying two points. Fujisawa then stole the winning point in the eighth after Wang (0-2) was short on her draw shot that needed to land on the button, but stopped in the four-foot circle.
Elsewhere, Team Eun-jung Kim blanked Team Seun-youn Ha 6-0 in a clash of South Korean clubs. Kim improved to a 1-1 record, while Ha dropped to 0-2.
Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin (1-1) also earned its first win with a 7-4 victory over Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz (1-1).
Defending men’s champion Ross Whyte and his Scottish squad climbed to a 2-0 record. Whyte scored four in the sixth end to close out a 9-2 rout over Canada’s Team Rylan Kleiter (0-2).
Despite the loss, Kleiter could end up earning Shot of the Week honours for his super spinner shot to get to the button for a single in the fourth end.
UP NEXT
Round-robin play resumes with Draw 6 at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT. Tickets are available at GSOCtickets.com with live online streaming at rockchannel.com.
Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins with Draw 10 Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.
NOTES
The AMJ Masters features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams.
Preliminary play runs through to Friday with the top eight teams qualifying for the playoffs. If necessary, tiebreakers will be played Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are set for Saturday. Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.
There are no extra ends during preliminary play and any tiebreakers. If a game is tied after eight ends, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner. Extra ends return for the playoff rounds.
Teams receive three points for a regulation win (in eight ends or less), two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss.
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