Three-time champion Rachel Homan off to winning start at Masters

OAKVILLE, Ont. — Rachel Homan is off to a winning start at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Masters event.

Homan’s Ottawa rink opened the event with an 8-7 win over Sweden’s Isabella Wrana on Tuesday afternoon.

Homan, a three-time Masters champion, scored three in the sixth end. Wrana responded with a single in the seventh, then stole one in the eighth in falling just short.

In other Draw 3 results, South Korea’s Gim Eun-Ji defeated Lethbridge, Alta.-based Team Scheidegger 9-3, Calgary’s Chelsea Carey edged Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 5-4 and Michele Jaggi beat Silvia Tirinzoni 6-5 in an all-Swiss showdown.

Earlier, Canadian skips Brad Gushue and Matt Dunstone dropped their opening games.

Yannick Schwaller’s Swiss side ran Gushue out of rocks in a 5-3 victory at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.

Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell scored a single in the eighth end for a 5-4 win over Dunstone.

At No. 2, Dunstone’s Winnipeg-based rink is the top-ranked Canadian team on the year-to-date world rankings list. Sweden’s Niklas Edin is No. 1 and Gushue, from St. John’s, N.L., is third. 

In other early games, Toronto’s John Epping defeated Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 7-3 and Scotland’s Bruce Mouat dumped American Korey Dropkin 8-2.

A fourth draw was scheduled for Tuesday evening. Play continues through Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022. 

The Canadian Press