News Masters

GUELPH, Ont. — Alina Pätz believes there was a bit of extra pressure to start the WFG Masters.

For the first time in Grand Slam of Curling history, the top four men’s and women’s teams selected their pool opponents for the event in an online draft last month. Pätz, who throws fourth stones for skip Silvana Tirinzoni, participated on behalf of the Swiss squad and selected Ottawa’s Team Danielle Inglis followed by Team Stefania Constantini of Italy during the first two rounds. 

Those teams just so happened to be their first two opponents in the tournament, but Team Tirinzoni prevailed by defeating Team Inglis 4-2 Tuesday and Team Constantini 6-4 Wednesday.

“It’s just tough,” Pätz said with a smile. “If you pick somebody they for sure want to play a good game against you. It’s tough and it’s not fun to pick them. I mean, they’re all good teams here, so it was a tough decision who we were going to pick, but to come out with two wins is great for us.”

Tirinzoni opened with the hammer against Constantini and the two-point conversion was good as Pätz made an open draw for a deuce.

Constantini fell behind 3-0 in the second end after whiffing on a blank attempt but bounced back in the third with a soft angle raise takeout to count a couple of points.

After alternating singles, Tirinzoni took a 6-3 advantage in the sixth end as Pätz pulled off an angle raise takeout of her own for two points.

Constantini (0-2) settled for another single in the seventh but ran out of rocks without the hammer coming home in the eighth.

It was a “final or bust” start to the season on the Grand Slam circuit for Tirinzoni, who missed the playoffs during the HearingLife Tour Challenge and KIOTI National and finished runner-up to Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan at the Co-op Canadian Open. 

Tirinzoni has two more round-robin games to go against third-round draft pick Team Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and crossover pool opponent Team Eun-jung Kim of South Korea.

“It feels great,” Pätz said. “We struggled a bit on the Grand Slam tour in 2024, so it’s always nice to start with two wins but there’s still a long way to go. We are for sure happy and we had some good practice days ahead of this Grand Slam, so we’re going into the next game pretty confident.”

Elsewhere in Wednesday’s Draw 6, Hasselborg (2-0) took two points in the eighth end to win 5-4 over Ottawa’s Team Danielle Inglis (0-2).

Kim also improved to a 2-0 record with a 9-7 extra-end win over Japan’s Team Ikue Kitazawa (1-1).

Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller (1-1) earned an 8-6 decision against South Korea’s Team Eun-ji Gim (0-2).

UP NEXT

Two more draws are on tap Wednesday at the Sleeman Centre with round-robin play running through to Friday evening. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca.

Live streaming of every game is available in free preview 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 is the fourth Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … The top eight 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. … A new rule is being tested this week where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends.