World champions Sweden lay down early marker in men’s curling

After the game, Sweden skip Niklas Edin said: “The game plan was perfect. We took our twos and forced them to ones. We executed well out there and got the game exactly where we wanted it.”

Elsewhere, European champions Switzerland defeated Canada by 5-4 in a game that saw the first four ends blanked before Switzerland opened the scoring with a steal of three points. The Canadians responded with two points in the sixth end, but the Swiss stayed in control in the second half of the game, to win by 5-4.

After the game, Switzerland's skip Sven Michel said: “That was a huge win. We played a really good game. The fifth end was the key really – we took three points then and are really happy we could reach our first win in the end," adding: "It was really important to bounce back with a win tonight because we have a day off tomorrow."

Norway and the USA both opened their campaigns on Monday evening. The Europeans opened up a commanding 5-1 lead before closing out the match 7-4.

Afterwards, Norway skip Thomas Ulsrud said: “We got off to a good start the moment we were leading 5-1. After that the US had to take a lot of chances and we could play defensive and play the easy shots. They had to play the difficult shots."

Cheered on by a large home-crowd, Russia took Denmark to the wire, scoring in the tenth end to level the scores at 10-10 and put the game into an extra end, which the Danes edged, to prevail 11-10.

Canadians impress in morning session

Earlier in the day Sweden beat Switzerland 7-5. Skip Edin played the shot of the match in the seventh end, an angled raise through a small gap into the house for a takeout that scored three points and a 5-3 lead.

In the highest scoring game of the morning, Brad Jacobs' Canada beat Germany 11-8 despite trailing 4-2 early. Jacobs gained control of the game with a takeout to score three points in the fourth end, and, in the next end, a draw from Germany fourth Felix Schulze that came up short let Canada steal another two points for a 7-4 lead on their way to an 11-8 win.

After the game, Jacobs said: “The Germans played very well and we struggled, especially with a couple of my shots that I missed. But we are happy to get our first win.”