News Masters

OAKVILLE, Ont. — Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., and Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes climbed to the top of the women’s leaderboard in the WFG Masters at 2-0 records.

Einarson defeated Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones 8-5 and Selena Njegovan skipped Team Lawes to a 7-2 victory over Team Satsuki Fujisawa from Japan during Draw 6 action Wednesday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.

It was a wild start to the Einarson-Jones match. After Einarson converted for a deuce off the bat, she wrecked on a guard with her last in the second end allowing Jones to hit and score four points. The four-time Grand Slam champion Einarson recovered with a three-ender in the third to regain the lead and then stole back-to-back single points to cushion the advantage 7-4.

The teams traded singles back and forth in six and seven and Einarson ran Jones out of rocks in eight.

Meanwhile, Njegovan was already up by one in the fourth end and capitalized after Fujisawa failed to cross the hog line. Njegovan drew for a deuce to extend the lead to 4-1.

A steal in the fifth stretched the advantage to four points, Fujisawa was forced to a single in the sixth and Njegovan tacked two more points on the board in the seventh.

Njegovan, who normally throws third on her team, has stepped up this week with Lawes away on maternity leave. Laura Walker is subbing at third.

Elsewhere in Draw 6, Vancouver’s Team Clancy Grandy improved to a 1-1 record with a 6-4 win over Switzerland’s Team Raphaela Keiser (0-2).

Team Tabitha Peterson from the United States got back on even ground sliding past South Korea’s Team Eun-Jung Kim 7-2. Peterson is now at 1-1 while Kim fell to 0-2.

UP NEXT

The WFG Masters continues with Draw 7 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Tickets are available at the door or online at masters.goigniter.com.

Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES

The WFG Masters is the third event of the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season featuring 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 as teams play four games against opponents outside of their pools. … 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.