Elite 10 Live Blog: Hasselborg takes the women’s title
CHATHAM-KENT, Ont. — Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg captured her first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title winning the inaugural Princess Auto Elite 10 women’s championship.
The reigning Olympic gold medallist downed Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 4-and-2 (four skins to none in six ends) in an all-European battle during Sunday’s final.
Team Hasselborg collects $24,000 of the $200,000 prize purse plus a berth to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup taking place April 23-28 in Saskatoon.
Previously a men’s invitational, a women’s division was added to the season-opening Princess Auto Elite 10 this year bringing parity to the seven-event Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling.
Later Sunday, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., faces Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers in the men’s final at 4 p.m. ET (Sportsnet ONE). Online streaming is available at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and gsoc.yaretv.com (international).
Here is how it all went down:
1st End: Hasselborg opened with the hammer but couldn’t convert on the scoreboard. A whiff on a runback allowed Team Tirinzoni to sit one and force Hasselborg to draw for the push. Hasselborg looked light but sweepers Sofia Mabergs and Agnes Knochenhauer were able to pull the string to within an inch in the eight-foot circle. ALL-SQUARE
2nd End: It was bagels on the board again. Hasselborg ran back her guard to eliminate the lone Tirinzoni stone in the house and fourth Alina Paetz bopped that one out for the blank. ALL-SQUARE
3rd End: Check! Paetz needed to make a double takeout but didn’t have enough juice to roll over to the second one. Hasselborg punched out the Tirinzoni rock and stuck around to score. HASSELBORG 1 UP
4th End: A swing and a miss. Tirinzoni sat a cluster of rocks around the eight-foot circle but Hasselborg had two at the top of the four-foot. Paetz looked to just nudge one of her team’s stones in for shot but whiffed and gave up a steal HASSELBORG 2 UP
5th End: Things are looking dormie. Tirinzoni must win out from here for a shot at the shootout after Paetz attempted an in-off to the button against two counters but rolled too far. HASSELBORG 3 UP
6th End: That’s the ball game. Team Hasselborg kept the house clean with third Sara McManus delivering a triple takeout and Hasselborg getting a double too. Hasselborg drew to the four-foot circle and was buried under cover with her last forcing Paetz to play an in-off double. However, Paetz hit and rolled the wrong way as Hasselborg captured the title. HASSELBORG WINS 4 UP
Match play rules are in effect at the Princess Auto Elite 10 where teams compete to win the most ends per game similar to skins only without carryovers. Points are scored by either counting two or more rocks (with the hammer) or stealing at least one rock (without the hammer). If the game is tied after eight ends, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner.
The Princess Auto Elite 10 features three additional unique rules: Stopwatches are banned, tick shots cannot be performed on guards sitting on the centre line until the sixth rock of play, and teams have four minutes of thinking time per end.