News Tour Challenge

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Satsuki Fujisawa and her Japanese team are still in it to win it, for now, in the HearingLife Tour Challenge.

Team Fujisawa needed a victory to remain in the mix for playoff contention and held off Rachel Homan’s Canadian club 9-5 during Draw 14 action Friday afternoon at the Coca-Cola Centre.

Fujisawa finished round-robin play with a 2-2 record. One women’s preliminary draw remains in the evening with tiebreakers expected to come into play to complete the playoff picture as a logjam has formed in the middle of the table.

Homan already secured a playoff spot and enters the quarterfinals at 3-1.

South Korea’s Team Gim and Sweden’s Team Wranå also improved to 2-2 records to keep their hopes alive.

Gim scored five in the fourth end during an 8-5 win over Canada’s Team Duncan (2-2). Wranå scored three in the eighth to win 7-5 over Team Jenstch to eliminate the German squad at 1-3.

Canada’s Team Jones (1-3) ended in the win column with an 8-7 victory over Sweden’s Team Hasselborg (3-1).

TIER 2 RESULTS

• Rocque 8, Galusha 5
• Martin 9, Farmer 2
• Crough 8, Gray-Withers 5
• Black 7, Watling 2

UP NEXT

Round-robin play continues with Draw 15 at 6 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. MT on Sportsnet East, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES

The HearingLife Tour Challenge is the second event on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar with two tiers and a total of 64 teams. Both tiers feature 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams. … The top eight teams overall advance to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for Saturday evening with both finals on tap for Sunday.