Mar 20, 2018
Canada keeps on rolling with two more victories
Canada's Jennifer Jones was given a rather favourable schedule at the start of the world women's curling championship and she's taken full advantage. The Winnipeg skip picked up two more wins Tuesday at the North Bay Memorial Gardens.
The Canadian Press
![Jennifer Jones, The Canadian Press Jennifer Jones](/polopoly_fs/1.1033090.1521638892!/fileimage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/jennifer-jones.jpg)
NORTH BAY, Ont. — Canada's Jennifer Jones was given a rather favourable schedule at the start of the world women's curling championship and she's taken full advantage.
The Winnipeg skip picked up two more wins Tuesday at the North Bay Memorial Gardens. She beat Denmark's Angelina Jensen 10-5 in the morning before topping Scotland's Hannah Fleming 8-6 in the evening.
Jones has opened the competition with six straight victories.
"They're really in a bubble, really on a bit of a roll with a rhythm and a routine ... I don't think you've seen the best yet, it's still to come," said national coach Elaine Dagg-Jackson.
Canada's first three wins over the weekend went smoothly and China provided a mild test Monday.
On Tuesday, Jensen's team was game against the host side in the early going before fading in the eighth end, giving up four points for the loss.
"We started a little bit slow so we'll try to fix that in the next game," Jones said. "But we're ending really strong, which if you're going to pick a way to do it, that's the way to go."
The Canada skip put up three points over the first two ends against Scotland, but Fleming scored a deuce in the third and nailed a delicate double-tapback for three in the fifth to take the lead.
Scotland stole a single in the sixth when Jones was wide with a raise attempt. But Jones rebounded with a double takeout in the seventh to score three for a lead she wouldn't relinquish.
The schedule will get a lot tougher for Canada starting Wednesday.
First up is an afternoon game against Olympic silver medallist EunJung Kim of South Korea. It will be followed by a showcase matchup against Pyeongchang champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden.
"Playing Canada in Canada in front of this audience — awesome," Hasselborg said.
Hasselborg, meanwhile, defeated Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic 8-6 in the afternoon and edged Switzerland's Binia Feltscher 5-4 in the late game to improve to 7-0.
South Korea moved to 5-1 with a 12-3 rout of China's Yilun Jiang in the minimum six ends while Kubeskova came back for a 9-8 win over Denmark.
In the early game, Denmark did a nice job of applying pressure after giving up a deuce to Jones in the opening end. Jensen scored back-to-back singles before Canada tacked on two more points in the fourth end.
In the fifth, Canada third Kaitlyn Lawes rubbed a guard and couldn't clear two opposition stones from the rings on her next throw. Jones went for a freeze with her last shot but it overcurled, allowing Jensen to draw the four-foot ring for a deuce.
"We were making our shots and we had good draw weight," said Denmark lead Lina Knudsen. "We were also able to get a few misses out of them by placing rocks really well."
Jones rebounded with a pair in the sixth end and forced Jensen to a single in the seventh.
Denmark struggled in the eighth end and Canada pounced. Lawes used a nice hit and roll to leave Canada sitting two under cover and Jones closed it out with a draw to score four.
After 11 draws, Russia's Victoria Moiseeva was at 4-2, ahead of the Czechs at 4-3 and Japan's Tori Koana and American Jamie Sinclair at 3-3.
China was 3-4 and Italy's Diana Gaspari and Switzerland were 2-5. Denmark and Germany's Daniela Jentsch sat at 1-5 while Scotland dropped to 1-6.
Round-robin play continues through Friday night. The top six teams in the 13-team field will make the playoffs and the medal games are set for Sunday.
Jones, the 2014 Olympic champion, won her lone world title in 2008. This is her sixth appearance at the world women's championship.
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