News Tour Challenge

A new Grand Slam of Curling season is right around the corner with the HearingLife Tour Challenge set to kick things off Tuesday at Charlottetown’s Bell Aliant Centre.

To get ready, let’s look back at last year’s event in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Joël Retornaz already had his name on one Grand Slam title as his team became the first from Italy to win a championship in the series at the 2022 WFG Masters. Fittingly in Niagara Falls, the HearingLife Tour Challenge was a bit of a watershed moment for Retornaz, third Amos Mosaner, second Sebastiano Arman and lead Mattia Giovanella.

Retornaz qualified for the playoffs as the top seed with a 3-1 round-robin record — a 6-4 defeat against Team Bruce Mouat being the team’s lone loss — and earned a 6-2 win over Team Niklas Edin in the quarterfinals plus a 6-3 win over Team Ross Whyte in the semifinals to reach the championship game.

Canada’s Team Brendan Bottcher entered the event as the No. 1 ranked team in the world. Bottcher, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert had already won three titles on tour.

Team Bottcher got out to a 1-2 start at the HearingLife Tour Challenge though, with losses to Team Brad Gushue and Team Matt Dunstone, but an 8-2 rout over Team Korey Dropkin and a good enough draw-to-the-button shootout tally helped the Calgary-based club qualify for the playoffs.

Bottcher beat Team Yannick Schwaller 5-3 in the quarterfinals and avenged the loss over Gushue with a 6-3 win in the semifinals. It was the third Grand Slam final through four events for Bottcher, who captured the Co-op Canadian Open and Champions Cup during the previous season.

The men’s final was a defensive and tight matchup tied 1-1 at the fourth-end break. After Retornaz settled for another single in the fifth, Bottcher blanked again in the sixth but wrecked on a guard in the seventh to give up a steal and fall behind 3-1.

Bottcher held the hammer for the eighth and hit to score the equalizing two points to force an extra end. It was just the second time in the HearingLife Tour Challenge’s history that the final required an extra. Retornaz pulled off a tough double takeout to secure shot rock and win 4-3.

“It’s amazing, it’s unbelievable,” Retornaz said after the win. “I never would have thought that I could win two Grand Slams. Two or three years ago, I never would have thought I would play in a Grand Slam. Winning Slams now, it’s not a habit but it’s what we’re supposed to do and these are the kinds of games we want to play.

“We work very hard, we train a lot, we travel a lot, we take away time from our families. We do that to get to play finals and to win events like this. It’s very demanding but when you win there’s nothing like it in the world.”

Winning Slams did sort of turn into a habit though as the HearingLife Tour Challenge was the first of three consecutive men’s titles for the team.

Retornaz followed that up with championship victories at the KIOTI National and WFG Masters. A loss to Team Whyte in the Co-op Canadian Open quarterfinals snapped the streak, however, Retornaz returned to “Championship Sunday” at the Players’ Championship looking to become the first to win four Grand Slams in a single season. Retornaz fell just short though with a 7-6 loss to Team Gushue on the last rock of the game.

Still, with three Grand Slam titles, Retornaz shares the single-season record alongside skips Kevin Martin, Gushue, Bottcher, Niklas Edin and Brad Jacobs in the men’s division plus Rachel Homan and Anna Hasselborg in the women’s division.

Jennifer Jones factored into our previous flashback when we reflected on the 2014 Players’ Championship in P.E.I., and she makes another appearance here although with a different lineup.

Jones made it to her first Grand Slam of Curling women’s final with third Karlee Burgess, second Emily Zacharias and lead Lauren Lenentine on an upset run. The Winnipeg/Altona, Man., team went 2-2 through pool play and qualified for the playoffs as the No. 7 seed due to shootout scores. Jones upended Team Silvana Tirinzoni 7-4 in the quarterfinals and Team Anna Hasselborg 7-5 in the semifinals.

Kaitlyn Lawes had moved on from Team Jones to skip her own squad in 2022 and sure enough the two sides met here in the final. Lawes, third Selena Njegovan, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Kristin Gordon also went on a stunning run after posting a 2-2 round-robin record and securing the No. 8 seed via shootout scores. Team Lawes upset top-seeded Team Eun-ji Gim 7-4 and ousted Team Kerri Einarson 6-4 as Lawes reached her first Grand Slam final as a skip.

Although Lawes won the draw-to-the-button to start the final with the hammer, she was forced to a single to start. Jones then took control. She hit and rolled to score three critical points in the second then stole a point in the third to lead 4-1 as Lawes attempted a double but rolled across the top of the second counter.

Lawes recovered and drew for two in the fourth, however, Jones matched with a runback in the fifth to re-establish the three-point advantage at 6-3.

After singles back and forth, Lawes held the hammer for the eighth end but ran out of rocks.

It was the 10th title win in the series for Jones and the first for Burgess, Zacharias and Lenentine.

“It feels amazing,” said Jones, whose previous Grand Slam win was at the National in November 2017. “It’s been a while. Just to do it with the girls, they’re so amazing, and to be in their first Slam final and come out with a win, that’ll be something that they’ll remember forever and I’m glad I could be a part of it.”

As it turned out, it was also Jones’s last Grand Slam title victory as she stepped back from women’s curling at the end of the season.

We’re not done just yet though. What makes the HearingLife Tour Challenge unique is its size with Tier 2 featuring teams looking to rise in the rankings.

Team Korey Dropkin had won the previous two Tier 2 men’s titles, but another American club captured the trophy this time. Call them the “Younger Bucks” as Team Daniel Casper of Chaska, Minn., claimed the title following a 6-2 victory over Japan’s Team Yusuke Morozumi.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Team Eun-jung Kim took the women’s title with a 7-4 win over Denmark’s Team Madeleine Dupont. Kim’s only loss of the week was against Dupont to start the tournament, and her team rebounded with six straight victories including a rematch in the final.

Casper and Kim earned invitations to the Co-op Canadian Open in Red Deer, Alberta. Casper (1-3) missed the playoffs but scored his first top-tier victory by defeating Team Kevin Koe 9-8. Kim qualified for the playoffs at 3-1 but ran into Team Silvana Tirinzoni in the quarterfinals and was eliminated with an 8-5 decision.

Join us for the HearingLife Tour Challenge, Oct. 1-6, at Charlottetown’s Bell Aliant Centre. Tickets are available at tourchallenge.goigniter.com.