Rachel Homan opened the Grand Slam season on Tuesday with a 4-3 triumph over fellow Canadian Clancy Grandy at the HearingLife Tour Challenge.
Homan, the defending champion from Beaumont, Alta., scored a single point in the eighth end for the win.
Clancy, from Coquitlam, B.C., picked up back-to-back steals to tie the game, but Homan used the hammer to her advantage in the final end.
In other early women’s matches, Kerri Einarson of Camp Morton, Man., posted a 5-3 win over Kate Cameron of New Bothwell, Man.
Jennifer Jones of Springwater, Ont., edged South Korea’s Seungyoun Ha 6-5 and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg beat Italy’s Stefania Constantini 8-4.
In the women’s late draw, Sweden’s Isabella Wrana scored a point in an extra ninth end to upset Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes 9-8.
Four-time women’s world champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland beat Norway’s Marianne Roervik 6-5, Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison thumped Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa 7-1 and South Korea’s Eun Ji Gim downed Tabitha Peterson of the United States 7-4.
In the opening men’s draw, Calgary’s Kevin Koe topped Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 5-4 and Scotland’s Ross Whyte overcome Sweden’s Niklas Edin 8-5.
American John Shuster beat Scotland’s Bruce Mouat 6-5 and Italy’s Joel Retornaz edged Japan’s Riku Yanagisawa 5-4.
In the men’s late draw, Brad Gushue’s squad from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, defeated Aaron Sluchinski’s crew of Airdrie, Alta., 8-2 in five ends, while Calgary’s Brendan Bottcher edged the Netherlands’ Wouter Gosgens 4-3.
Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg rolled past Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway 6-3, and Korey Dropkin of Duluth, Minn., defeated Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland 8-3.
Play continues through Sunday.
In yet another nod to the sport’s improved international depth, this season there are only 12 Canadian teams among the 32 total Tier-1 entries — six in the women’s draw and six in the men’s pool.
Nine different countries are represented in each 16-team draw.
Canada hasn’t won a four-player team medal at the Games since 2014. The country’s world championship drought dates back to 2017 for the men (Brad Gushue) and 2018 for the women (Jennifer Jones).
World ranking positions are used to determine the entries at the combined $400,000 competition.
Bottcher, Gushue, Dunstone and Koe hold top-10 spots in the men’s world rankings. Einarson, Cameron, Homan and Jones are in the women’s top 10.
