TRURO, N.S. — Defending champion Val Sweeting improved to a 2-0 record at the Masters following an 8-2 victory in five ends over Binia Feltscher during Draw 6 action Thursday.
Leading 2-1 after the second end, Sweeting scored four in the third and stole two in the fifth to take a seven-point lead over the 2013 world champion from Switzerland.
Sweeting, of Edmonton, forced Feltscher (0-2) to just another single in five and the teams shook hands.
Team Sweeting earned their first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title at the Masters last season.
GSOC Masters Live: Men’s scores | Women’s scores
EunJung Kim of Korea is also off to a 2-0 start with a 7-3 win over Tracy Fleury. Kim scored three in the second and deuces in four and six while limiting Fleury to singles in the third, fifth and seventh ends.
Fleury, of Sudbury, Ont., fell to a 0-2 record in the round robin.
On the men’s side, Toronto’s John Epping (1-2) earned his first win at the Masters taking down Scotland’s David Murdoch 7-3. Epping jumped into the lead with a three-ender in the first and added a steal of two in the second for an early 5-0 advantage. Murdoch got on the board with a deuce in three, but Epping countered adding another pair of points in five. Team Murdoch (0-2) were held to one in six and shook hands.
NOTES: The Masters is the second stop on the seven-event 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule and runs through to Sunday at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre. … Joanne Courtney will be taking over the @grandslamcurl Twitter account Thursday night at 6 p.m. ET. Courtney said, “I’m a little bit new to Twitter, I picked it up last year when I joined the team, so I’m excited to see what that’s all about.” … TV coverage of the Masters begins Thursday at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT on Sportsnet.
