Jones downs Sweeting to earn top spot at Players’ Championship
TORONTO — Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones wrapped up the women’s round-robin portion securing the No. 1 seed for the quarterfinals with a decisive 7-1 victory over Edmonton’s Val Sweeting during Draw 12 Friday afternoon.
The five-time Players’ Championship winner Jones finished pool play with a 4-1 record and locked in a four-way tie with Ottawa’s Rachel Homan, Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland, and Eve Muirhead of Scotland. Jones took the top spot based on draw-to-the-button totals.
Sweeting secured a playoff spot with a 2-3 record and is set for a rematch against Jones in the quarterfinals.
Jones was in complete control taking a single in the first and stealing one in the second for a 2-0 lead. Sweeting got on the board in the third when she was forced to take a point in three, but it was all Jones from there as she added a three-count in the fourth and swiped back-to-back singles in the fifth and sixth to bring out early handshakes.
Elsewhere in Draw 12, Tirinzoni beat Homan 6-2 and the defending champion Muirhead defeated Russia’s Anna Sidorova 5-4. The world bronze medallist Sidorova was eliminated at 1-4.
Kelsey Rocque is also playoff-bound scoring a deuce in the eighth end for a 6-5 victory over Alina Paetz of Switzerland. Rocque (3-2) sat two after her first skip stone and didn’t need to throw her last as Paetz (1-4) missed the mark and was eliminated.
Scotties champion Chelsea Carey of Calgary ended on a high note with a 5-4 victory over American Erika Brown. Carey is done at 1-4 while Brown advanced at 2-3.
No tiebreakers were required for the women’s division with the other quarterfinal matchups featuring Homan vs. Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson (3-2), Muirhead vs. Brown, and Tirinzoni vs. Rocque.
NOTES: The Players’ Championship is the fourth major and sixth event of the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. … The Rogers Grand Slam Cup will also be awarded to the overall season champions following the conclusion of the Players’ Championship. Rachel Homan mathematically clinched the women’s title with the men’s champion to be determined. … Winners of the Players’ Championship earn berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 26 to May 1 in Sherwood Park, Alta.
