Wrana, Tirinzoni to face off again for Princess Auto Players’ Championship women’s title
TORONTO — The rematch is set for the Princess Auto Players’ Championship women’s final as defending champs Team Isabella Wranå of Sweden will meet Team Silvana Tirinzoni once again on Sunday.
Wranå defeated South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim 6-5 while Tirinzoni topped Canada’s Team Rachel Homan 5-3 during Saturday’s soldout semifinals at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
It was almost exactly one year ago when Wranå captured her first career Grand Slam of Curling title with a narrow 6-5 victory over Tirinzoni, and she’ll need deja vu in order to secure her second.
“That would mean so much and it’s going to be so fun playing against Team Tirinzoni,” Wranå said. “It’s always a great game against them.”
Tirinzoni, who skips and throws third rocks, has claimed three championships in the series and will play in a third consecutive Grand Slam women’s final to wrap up the season. Will the third time be the charm to finish the season on a high note?
“It would mean the world to us,” said Alina Pätz, who throws last rocks for Tirinzoni. “We haven’t won a lot of Grand Slams yet, so to win the Players’ Championship would just be a dream come true. We’re looking forward to a good game tomorrow.”
Oddly enough, both women’s semifinal matches were won on steals. Gim came up an inch short on her final draw with the measure going in Wranå’s favour after a second look.
“It feels amazing,” Wranå said. “We had some struggles this game, but we really fought it out to the last stone and it feels so good to play in the final again.”
Wranå watched from the side during the measure and pumped her fists after the first pass of the stick, but she had to wait another couple of nervous moments as Team Gim third Minji Kim asked to double check before it was confirmed.
“My eyes saw that it was our stone [after] the first measure and then I was like, OK, they want to do it again, so of course we did it again,” Wranå said. “I guess the reaction was because I thought we were better.”
Meanwhile, the loss for Homan was her first of the week only the seventh on the season as her team capped an amazing year with an overall unprecedented 67-7 record.
Homan had Tirinzoni’s number this season winning both of their meetings during the previous two Grand Slam women’s finals plus their pair of encounters at the world women’s curling championship including the gold medal match.
Tirinzoni took a 2-1 lead in the third, only the second time all week Homan had trailed, after the skip from Ottawa was light on her last to give up a steal.
Homan bounced back big time with an amazing angle raise takeout to score a deuce in the fifth end to reclaim a one-point lead.
Another unreal Homan shot, this time redirecting off one Tirinzoni and into the house to eliminate another, had her sitting three counters in the house and forced Pätz to draw for the equalizing single.
That handed Homan the hammer for the final frame and even though Pätz rolled just a little deep to the back of the four-foot circle on her last, Team Tirinzoni still sat first and second shot rock. Homan had to draw around a wall of granite but couldn’t get her shooter close enough to count.
Pätz said it feels amazing to reach another Princess Auto Players’ Championship final.
“It was a tough game and it’s always a battle against Rachel,” she said. “It was about time for us to beat her, to be honest. We always have close games and it could have been on both sides this game. Both teams made amazing shots and at the end, it was a tough draw she had to play and we’re lucky we pulled out the win.”
She believes it will take a similar strong effort in order to upend Wranå and avoid a repeat of last year.
“We have to bring our ‘A’ game if we want to beat them,” Pätz said. “We saw it last year, they’re amazing, so we’ll just try to stay focused, try to play the same level that we did today then we have a good chance to have a good game.”
The women’s final kicks off Championship Sunday at 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet+ (Canada) and gsoclive.com (international).
The men’s final between Canada’s Team Brad Gushue and Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz follows at 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT on Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet+ (Canada) and gsoclive.com (international).
