News Masters

GUELPH, Ont. — Matt Dunstone and his Winnipeg-based club will carry an unblemished record into the WFG Masters quarterfinals.

Dunstone completed a 4-0 run through round-robin play with a 7-4 victory over Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz on Friday afternoon.

Although both teams had already qualified for the playoffs, the win guaranteed one of the top seeds and the hammer to start the quarterfinals. Dunstone will also get to select his quarterfinal opponent during a draft in the evening.

“You could look at it as a bit of a nothing game but I mean, there was a lot to play for today,” Dunstone said. “Obviously, we get to pick our quarterfinal matchup now and we get hammer in the quarterfinal for sure, which is very key, and a little bit of extra money too.

“Those are the little things that you have to do to give yourself a chance to win at the end of the week and that’s what we’re here to do. We put ourselves in a good spot and we’ve just got to bring our best stuff tomorrow.”

Muskatewitz (3-1) flipped control of the game early limiting Dunstone to one point in the first then drawing for a deuce in the second to grab a 2-1 lead.

After Dunstone was forced to draw to the button for another single in the third, Muskatewitz looked to hit and roll in for two in the fourth but the shooter stopped short and he only counted a point to make it 3-2.

“They’re great. In terms of making shots, they made a ton of them out there,” Dunstone said. “That was probably our best game of the week, too, and we threw everything we had at them. That’s a really good team. That’s a team that’s going to be here for a really long time and is only going to get better.”

Dunstone took back control in the fifth and tapped for two points to pull ahead 4-3.

After alternating singles in six and seven, Muskatewitz attempted a super spinner shot to try and knock off Dunstone’s rocks from the button but missed the mark.

“You never know how those are going to end up, but we were luckily on the right side of it,” Dunstone said. “I’m sure it was fun to watch on TV.”

Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte (3-1) qualified for the playoffs after scoring a single in the eighth end to clip Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz 6-5.

It was a rematch, but not a repeat, of last season’s WFG Masters men’s final. The double-defending champion Retornaz (2-2) is still in the mix and must wait out the evening round-robin finale to find out his fate.

“It’s great to be at 3-1,” Whyte said. “We had a tough start against the German boys. They played extremely well and put us right on the back foot for this competition, but thankfully we bounced back with three wins and at least in the quarterfinals. We don’t get jammed up in these tiebreakers, which is nice.”

The top four teams had the opportunity to select their pool opponents in a draft last month. Whyte fell to the last pick of the draft but don’t call him “Mr. Irrelevant.”

“I don’t know if it’s quite directly correlated to they don’t want to play us, but it definitely seems like we’re one of the last ones that people want to play,” Whyte said with a smile. “That’s a nice feeling, but if we don’t go out there and play well ourselves it doesn’t really make a difference. We just have to keep playing well.”

Team Whyte was sharp in the draw-to-the-button shootouts as well, covering the pin in all but one attempt through the week. Since each team’s worst throw is dropped from the totals, Whyte posted the lowest score at 0.0 cm.

“That was pretty special this week putting five on the pin,” Whyte said. “We know that tiebreakers can come in and as soon as we lost the first one we said, ‘Let’s make sure we kept winning games but put some draw shots on the pin,’ and that’s what we did. It sounds like we’re going to get a pick tonight in who we want to play in the quarterfinals, so we’ll see who is there to be chosen.”

Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller (2-2) remained in contention with a 10-4 victory over Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L.

Gushue counted three off the bat in the first and led 4-1 at the fourth-end break, but Team Schwaller rallied with fourth Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel firing a shot to score four points in the fifth to jump into the lead. Team Schwaller stole one in the sixth and four in the seventh as Gushue struggled.

“It feels great,” said Schwaller, who throws third on his team. “The comeback of the team, we struggled a bit with that in the past. I think we did not capitalize a lot so far at this tournament. We did not convert a lot of deuces, so it was nice to see something else than a one for once on the scoreboard. A great mentality by the team. No negativity after we were 3-1 down, that helped a lot to come back.”

Schwaller missed last month’s KIOTI National after undergoing meniscus surgery on his knee right before the tournament but said he now feels awesome.

“I do not feel any pain and it feels very smooth,” he said. “Great doctors and great program in Switzerland to help me to get back.”

It’s the first time Gushue (0-4) has gone winless through a Grand Slam of Curling event since 2006.

Saskatoon’s Team Rylan Kleiter topped Team Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway 7-4. Both teams head home with 1-3 records.

Kleiter defeated Ramsfjell in the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 men’s final in October to earn a berth into the WFG Masters.

UP NEXT

Round-robin play continues with Draw 15 at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca.

Live streaming of every game is available in free preview via HomeTeam.

NOTES

The WFG Masters is the fourth Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … A new rule is being tested this week where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday evening. The top eight teams in both divisions qualify for the playoffs. … If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be held Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with both finals slated for Sunday.