News Tour Challenge

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Silvana Tirinzoni and her Swiss squad have continued their winning ways to start the HearingLife Tour Challenge.

Tirinzoni, who is riding a three-event title streak, scored deuces in the fifth and seventh ends to defeat Canada’s Team Carey 5-3 during Draw 2 action Tuesday at the Coca-Cola Centre.

Although Team Tirinzoni shot 76 per cent compared to Team Carey at 85 per cent, it was fourth Alina Paetz who kept them in it with a team-high 88 per cent.

“It always feels great to start a Grand Slam with a win,” Paetz said. “It’s not like we always win, but we always try to do our best. For now, it works but we can for sure play better than this.”

Tirinzoni went undefeated at 7-0 through the Boost National to win her third career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s title two weeks ago in North Bay, Ont., to kick off the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tour. That victory was sandwiched between wins at the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard and the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown in Swift Current, Sask., just this past weekend.

“It’s just like (we’re) hanging in there every game,” Paetz explained. “We are winning a lot of games, but it’s not like we’re playing super well. It’s always a fight in every game, so we just try to hang in there.”

Elsewhere in Draw 2, Canada’s Team Einarson scored three points in the seventh end to complete a 7-3 victory over Team Keiser from Switzerland and Canada’s Team Lawes doubled up on Team Peterson of the United States 6-3.

Team Kim of South Korea downed Canada’s Team Scheidegger 8-2 in six ends. Already up by one at the break, Kim scored three points in the fifth and stole two in the sixth to bring out the early handshakes.

TIER 2 RESULTS

• Moore 6, Sturmay 5
• Kelly 7, Grandy 6
• Dupont 6, Hunkin 5
• Skrlik 7, McCarville 5

UP NEXT

The HearingLife Tour Challenge continues with Draw 3 at 3 p.m. MT.

Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. MT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES

The HearingLife Tour Challenge is the second of six events on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar with two tiers and a total of 64 teams. Both tiers feature 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday as teams play four games against opponents outside of their pool. … 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.