TORONTO — Reigning world champion Alina Paetz was golden again defeating Jennifer Jones 8-5 Friday at the Players’ Championship and qualified for the playoffs at the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.
It was a back-and-forth battle in a rematch of last month’s world final. Paetz broke a 1-1 tie with a deuce in the third as she made the hit with her final throw to get shot and let out a sigh of relief when her other stone stuck around for second.
Jones briefly went ahead 4-3 with a slash to the button that bounced around to score three in the fourth.
Paetz matched with three of her own in the fifth to pull back into the lead. Jones just missed the double and Paetz made the open draw for the three-ender to go up 6-4.
Paetz held Jones to one in six, opened up an 8-5 lead with an in-off to score a deuce in the seventh end and the rinks shook hands in the eighth.
Team Jones finished the tournament with a 1-4 record.
Players’ Championship: Men’s Scores | Women’s Scores | Standings
Elsewhere, Russia’s Anna Sidorova reached the tiebreakers following a 6-3 win over Scotland’s Eve Muirhead. Sidorova opened with a steal of three and never relinquished the lead.
The team alternated singles and Sidorova swiped another point in five to make it 5-1. Muirhead got two in the sixth. Sidorova had a chance for three in the seventh but missed and took just one but ran Muirhead out of rocks in the eighth.
Both rinks finished with 3-2 records and eliminated all teams with three losses from playoff contention.
Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin (3-2) earned an 8-5 victory over Binia Feltscher of Switzerland to advance. Nedohin scored three in the second, two in the fourth, stole a pair in five and added another point in seven. Feltscher finishes with a 1-4 record.
Ottawa’s Rachel Homan (4-1) has a direct berth to the semifinals following a 9-6 extra-end win over Sherry Middaugh (3-2), of Coldwater, Ont.
Edmonton’s Val Sweeting (4-1) also has a bye as one of the top two seeds. Nedohin faces Muirhead in the quarterfinals while Paetz plays the winner between Sidorova and Middaugh in Saturday morning’s tiebreaker.
In the men’s division, Switzerland’s Sven Michel ended his tournament on a high note with a point in the final end to win 6-5 over reigning world champ Niklas Edin of Sweden. Edin trailed 5-3 after five but stole back-to-back singles to knot it up. Michel bounced back to get the winnner, finishing with a 1-4 record while Edin heads home at 0-5.