Bottcher stuns world champ Edin at Players’ Championship
TORONTO — Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher upset reigning world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden with a stunning 11-5 victory during Draw 2 action Wednesday morning in the Players’ Championship.
Bottcher jumped out to an early 4-0 lead with a four-ender in the first. After Edin counted three in the second to narrow the gap, Bottcher went on a roll taking two in the third and stealing a pair in four when Edin rolled too far on his last shot. Edin got a deuce back in the fifth and Bottcher settled for one in six before swiping two more points in seven to bring out the handshakes.
Edin captured the world men’s title this past Sunday with a 9-5 victory over Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud in the gold medal game.
Elsewhere, reigning world women’s champion Alina Paetz of Switzerland took two in the seventh to win 6-4 over Scotland’s Eve Muirhead. Paetz stole singles through the first two ends, the teams traded points through three and four and Paetz swiped another in the fifth to make it 4-1. Muirhead rallied counting three in the sixth to tie it but couldn’t complete the comeback as she ran out of rocks with the hammer coming home.
Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin broke a tie with a deuce in the seventh and stole one in the final end to win 5-2 over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and Binia Feltscher of Switzerland downed Russia’s Anna Sidorova 8-3.
The Players’ Championship continues with Draw 3 action at the Mattamy Athletic Centre starting Noon ET.
