GUELPH, Ont. — Rachel Homan, Brad Jacobs and Matt Dunstone remained undefeated to qualify for playoffs at the Grand Slam of Curling's WFG Masters of Thursday.
The three Canadian teams in the international field of 32 improved to 3-0 with victories and punched their tickets to Saturday's quarterfinals at the Sleeman Centre.
Homan defeated archrival Kerri Einarson 6-2 in the women's event. Jacobs downed Mike McEwen 7-4 and Dunstone beat Rylan Kleiter 7-1 in the men's.
Reigning Canadian men's champion Brad Gushue (0-3) dropped a third in a row in a 9-4 loss to Scotland's Ryan Whyte.
The fourth of five Grand Slams this season offers a prize purse of $400,000.
For many of the Canadian teams, it's also a tuneup for the national women's curling championship next month in Thunder Bay, Ont., and the men's championship in Kelowna, B.C. in March.
Sweden's Anna Hasselborg and South Korea's Eun-jung Kim joined Homan at 3-0 with victories in Thursday evening's draw.
Kim defeated South Korea's Gim Eun-ji 6-2, Hasselborg beat Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni 8-2, Canada's Danielle Inglis improved to 1-2 with a 7-4 win over Italy's Stefania Constantini and Japan's Ikue Kitazawa was a 5-3 victor over Xenia Schwaller of Switzerland.
On Thursday afternoon, Canada's Jordan McDonald was a 5-3 winner over Philipp Hoesli of Switzerland 5-3 and John Epping edged Corey Dropkin of the United States 6-5 in an extra end. McDonald and Epping were both 1-2.
Germany's Marc Muskatewitz, also playoff-bound at 3-0, meets Dunstone on Friday when McEwen (1-2) needs a win over men's world No. 1 Bruce Mouat of Scotland (2-1) to avoid elimination.
Jacobs takes on Sweden's Niklas Edin (2-1) and four-time Canadian women's champ Einarson (2-1) concludes the preliminary round against Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa (1-2).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2025.
The Canadian Press