News Masters

GUELPH, Ont. — Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg got out to a winning start for 2025.

Team Hasselborg scored a single in the extra end to edge Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini 7-6 Tuesday morning during the opening draw of the WFG Masters at the Sleeman Centre.

Hasselborg just needed to make an open takeout with her last shot to prevail.

“We said yesterday that we wanted to try to continue the momentum we started to build in November,” said Hasselborg, who wrapped up 2024 earning silver at the European Championships and finishing runner-up at the KIOTI National. “The ice felt great, we got a good read on it and we had a great game today.”

A new rule is being tested during the fourth Grand Slam of Curling event of the season where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends. That almost played right at the start as all four games across the sheets began with blanks in the first end.

Hasselborg had to settle for a single in the second, but she was able to force Constantini to one in the third to knot it up.

Although Hasselborg was held to one in the fourth, she sat two staggered in the house during the fifth and stole both points as Constantini’s shooter rubbed off the top one.

Constantini recovered taking two in the sixth and Hasselborg matched with a tap for a deuce in the seventh to make it 6-3.

Despite the deficit, Constantini didn’t give up and pulled off a double takeout to score the equalizing three points in the eighth end to force the extra.

In other games, Japan’s Team Ikue Kitazawa defeated South Korea’s Team Eun-ji Gim 6-4, Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni doubled up on Ottawa’s Team Danielle Inglis 4-2 and South Korea’s Team Eun-jung Kim beat Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller 5-1.

UP NEXT

Round-robin play continues with Draw 2 at 11:30 a.m. local time at the Sleeman Centre. Single draw tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca.

Live streaming of every game is available via HomeTeam.

Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins with Draw 10 Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.

NOTES

The WFG Masters features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … 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.