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GUELPH, Ont. — Calgary’s Team Brad Jacobs will clash with Team Ross Whyte of Scotland in the WFG Masters men’s final on Sunday.

The seven-time Grand Slam of Curling champion Jacobs drew to the back of the button with the last rock to secure a 7-5 victory over Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat during Saturday’s semifinals.

It’s the second straight Grand Slam men’s final for Jacobs, who lost to Mouat in last month’s championship game at the KIOTI National and will carry an unblemished 6-0 record into the matchup against Whyte.

“We’ve been playing awesome in these events all year,” Jacobs said. “I think since we got here this week, we’ve really just had a great game plan coming into this Slam. I think everybody is on the same page with communication. We all feel really good about the ice surface and I think that’s why we’re making so many shots.

“Any time you play against a team like Bruce Mouat, the best team in the world, we talked about it before the game, ‘You have to be very precise,’ and we were exactly that tonight. It got away from us a little bit in the last end there, but you know what? We had a shot for the win and it was a great team shot. Sweepers managed it really well and it felt awesome to finish that game off and make another final.”

Jacobs opened with the hammer and converted off the bat by bumping his stone to push Mouat’s rock back far enough to score a deuce.

Mouat, who was seeking a fourth consecutive Grand Slam men’s title, responded with a tap for two points in the second as the cat-and-mouse chase was on.

After Jacobs potted another pair of points in the third, he turned up the pressure in the fourth with four stones in the house to force Mouat to draw for just a single.

Jacobs blanked the fifth and drew for another two points in the sixth to hold a 6-3 advantage. Mouat made things interesting by counting a couple in the seventh to close within one and forced Jacobs into a tough draw on his last in the eighth. The Sleeman Centre crowd got into it with a slow clap that erupted into a roar when the rock stopped just in time. 

“We very much appreciate everybody who buys a ticket to come and cheer on their favourite teams and be entertained at these Grand Slams,” Jacobs said. “There was no shortage of entertainment out there tonight. We’re just hoping that we can come out tomorrow against Team Whyte and put a really great game together, both teams, and make it worth everyone’s while to come out and watch here in Guelph.”

Jacobs will also have the hammer to start against Whyte and chuckled: “I guess the hammer is pretty important, eh?”

“It’s neat that we went undefeated to this point and we’ve earned the right to have the hammer in the final,” he said. “I think it’s going to be important. Especially against the top teams in the world, any time you can have that little advantage, it really can show up on the scoreboard if you use it right. We’re expecting to have to play our absolute best tomorrow in order to get a victory here and hopefully, like I said, we can manage the scoreboard well, make a lot of shots and get it done here in Guelph.”

Meanwhile, Whyte was also victorious by a 7-5 score, eliminating Winnipeg’s Team Matt Dunstone, to reach his second career Grand Slam final.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Whyte, who finished runner-up to Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz in last season’s WFG Masters. “We’re working really hard at home and thankfully, that’s starting to pay off on the ice and we’re starting to get results at these Grand Slam events. We were hoping we’d get further than the quarterfinals and we’ve done that this week so hopefully, we can go one more.”

Dunstone entered the semifinals undefeated while Whyte lost his round-robin opener to Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz before winning four straight games.

The 2019 Masters champion Dunstone capitalized with the hammer, drawing for a deuce in the first end, and held a 3-1 advantage until missing a slash double in the fourth that allowed Whyte to draw for three points and the lead.

Whyte stole two in the sixth to hold a 6-3 advantage as Dunstone’s angle raise went awry. Dunstone regrouped with a deuce in the seventh, but Whyte added another point with the hammer coming home.

“We knew it was always going to be a really tough game the whole way through,” Whyte said. “Those boys are extremely good and especially when they start with hammer, it makes it very tough. We knew we were going to be in for a long haul, but we played really well. We placed some really good stones in there and thankfully, we just got a miss or two.”

Whyte will need more of the same in order to flip the hammer against Jacobs.

“They’re going to be tough again,” Whyte said. “You know what? Everyone you play at the Slams nowadays is always really good. We’re going to be going out there and giving it our best and hopefully, we can flip the hammer pretty quickly. If not, hopefully, we’ve got the hammer in the last end.”

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan will face Team Anna Hasselborg of Sweden in a second consecutive Grand Slam women’s final.

Homan came from behind to beat South Korea’s Team Eun-jung Kim 10-7 and Hasselborg ousted Team Isabella Wranå 6-3 in an all-Swedish semifinal showdown.

“Honestly, I’m just really proud of my team,” said Homan, who topped Hasselborg at the KIOTI National to earn a record-extending 17th Grand Slam women’s title. “We missed a few early and we just learned from them. We kept trying to stick with it and made a pile of shots in the second half. That was the difference in the game.”

It was a repeat of their KIOTI National semifinal matchup right down to Kim starting with the hammer and Homan completing a comeback. Down 4-1, Homan pulled off a tap for a critical count of three points in the fourth end to make it all square.

Team Kim, playing short-handed with third Kyeong-ae Kim away at a mixed doubles event, hit for a single in the fifth and Homan took two in the sixth to pull ahead 6-5.

Homan couldn’t pull off the triple in the seventh that gave Kim an open draw for two and the lead, however, she punctuated a strong eighth end with a score of four that electrified her home province fans.

“It was awesome,” Homan said. “I’m excited to be in Ontario and playing in front of an excited crowd. We’re expecting more tomorrow and we can’t wait.”

Undefeated Hasselborg will hold the hammer in the final and believes it’ll be huge against Homan.

“I know last game we went hard for a steal and we got that in the first end,” said Hasselborg, who has captured seven Grand Slam women’s titles. “But now I think we can get ourselves a little bit more in the game and hopefully, take advantage of the hammer.”

Hasselborg was already up 2-1 in the fifth end when she forced Wranå into attempting a risk-versus-reward double to score two. Wranå’s shooter sailed straight through the house untouched though to give up a key steal of two.

Although Wranå got her two points back in the sixth, Hasselborg matched with a pair in the seventh and ran her Sundbyberg clubmate out of rocks in the eighth.

“I feel that we’re definitely peaking in the direction that we want to and I feel confident going into this final once again against Homan,” Hasselborg said. “I think we’ve been throwing really well the whole week.

“It’s going to be a great final. I’m really, really looking forward to it and I feel the team is prepared for a battle against Rachel again.”

The men’s final kicks off Championship Sunday at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT followed by the women’s final at 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

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