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Canada’s Jones beats Denmark’s Jensen for fifth straight win at world playdowns

NORTH BAY, Ont. — Canada’s Jennifer Jones was given a rather favourable schedule at the start of the world women’s curling championship and she’s taken full advantage.
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NORTH BAY, Ont. — Canada’s Jennifer Jones was given a rather favourable schedule at the start of the world women’s curling championship and she’s taken full advantage.

The Winnipeg skip picked up her fifth straight win Tuesday by topping Denmark’s Angelina Jensen 10-5 at the North Bay Memorial Gardens.

“We started a little bit slow so we’ll try to fix that in the next game,” Jones said. ”But we’re ending really strong, which if you’re going to pick a way to do it, that’s the way to go.”

Canada’s first three wins over the weekend went smoothly and China provided a mild test on Monday.

On Tuesday, Jensen’s team was game in the early going before fading in the eighth end, giving up four points for the loss. Jones was scheduled to face Scotland’s Hannah Fleming (1-5) in the evening draw.

The schedule will get a lot tougher for Canada starting Wednesday.

First up is an afternoon game against Olympic silver medallist EunJung Kim of South Korea. It will be followed by a showcase matchup against Pyeongchang champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden.

Hasselborg, meanwhile, improved to 6-0 with an 8-6 win over the Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova.

American Jamie Sinclair defeated Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher 7-5 and Russia’s Victoria Moiseeva beat Japan’s Tori Koana 7-4. Germany’s Daniela Jentsch outscored Italy’s Diana Gaspari 10-7 in the other afternoon game.

Earlier, South Korea needed an extra end to shade Italy 8-7, Scotland held off Germany 8-5 and China’s Yilun Jiang dumped Japan 11-4.

Denmark did a nice job of applying pressure after giving up a deuce to the host team in the opening end. Jensen scored back-to-back singles before Canada tacked on two more points in the fourth end.

In the fifth, Canada third Kaitlyn Lawes rubbed a guard and couldn’t clear two opposition stones from the rings on her next throw. Jones went for a freeze with her last shot but it overcurled, allowing Jensen to draw the four-foot ring for a deuce.

“We were making our shots and we had good draw weight,” said Denmark lead Lina Knudsen. “We were also able to get a few misses out of them by placing rocks really well.”

Jones rebounded with a pair in the sixth end and forced Jensen to a single in the seventh.

Denmark struggled in the eighth end and Canada pounced. Lawes used a nice hit and roll to leave Canada sitting two under cover and Jones closed it out with a draw to score four.

The thirds had the lowest percentages of the eight players. Lawes shot 75 per cent while Christine Groenbech was at 63 per cent.

Canada was 80 per cent as a team, just ahead of Denmark’s 78 per cent.

After 10 draws, Sweden (6-0) and Canada (5-0) were the only unbeaten rinks. South Korea was in third place at 4-1 and Russia was next at 4-2.

A four-way tie for fifth place at 3-3 included China, the Czech Republic, Japan and the United States. Switzerland was 2-4, followed by Italy (2-5), Denmark (1-4), Germany and Scotland (both 1-5).

Round-robin play continues through Friday night. The top six teams in the 13-team field will make the playoffs and the medal games are set for Sunday.

Jones, the 2014 Olympic champion, won her lone world title in 2008. This is her sixth appearance at the world women’s championship.