Canada, Russia and Switzerland maintain winning starts in women’s curling

In the early ends, the Americans had built up a 4-1 advantage, but the turning point came in the fourth and fifth ends when the hosts fought back to secure a 5-4 lead.

Russia stayed in front in the second half, restricting the Americans’ scoring opportunities to seal a deserved win, despite feeling the pressure.

“Inside I feel that it's the Olympic Games and that people are cheering for me. I guess, for me, it's more pressure,” admitted Russian skip Anna Sidorova. “But I’m pleased that people in the world like us and follow our game.”

World champions Sweden found the going tough against Canada. Every time they scored one point, the Canadians replied with two in the next end, a pattern that was repeated until the eighth end.

Canadian skip Jennifer Jones was able to draw her last stone into the house to score three points, for a 9-3 lead. The Swedes then conceded defeat before the final two ends.

Swedish skip Margaretha Sigfridsson was gracious in defeat: “We played a better game than we did yesterday but they played a perfect game,” she concluded.

Her opposing skip, Jennifer Jones, said: “I never look at the stats, but I felt like we played really well as a team today. The girls just left me some makeable shots and I made them.” The Republic of Korea and Japan started their Olympic campaigns in an all-Asian encounter which the Koreans won 12-7.

Japan led 5-4 at the halfway mark, but the sixth end saw Korea score three points unanswered when their skip Jisun Kim drew her last stone onto the button. They then dominated the remaining ends for a convincing win.

“Before the game I was very nervous as we knew that Japan were very skilled, but we took every opportunity to compete,” reflected Korean skip Kim.

Elsewhere, Switzerland edged a tight match against Denmark game, which was tied at 3-3 after five ends, with the two teams level again at 6-6 after the ninth.

In the tenth end, Switzerland had last stone advantage and their skip Mirjam Ott drew onto the button to score the winning point.

Despite a second consecutive defeat, the Danish skip Danish skip Lene Nielsen refused to be downbeat. “We learned a lot from [the loss to Russia] yesterday and tried to break that. I don't think we had the luck we need at this level, but overall I'm quite OK with our performance.”