Jennifer Jones opens Curling World Cup with easy win over Japan

Curling-Jennifer-Jones-watches-shot

Team Canada skip Jennifer Jones. (Paul Chiasson/CP)

BEIJING — Canada’s Jennifer Jones and her Winnipeg rink picked up a 10-1 victory over Japan on Wednesday on the opening day of the final Curling World Cup event of the season.

Jones, a two-time world champion, curled at a 98 per cent clip in the match as Canada cruised to victory in six ends.

Jones played a raise to score three in the second end for an early 3-0 lead and forced Japan to one in the third end. The Jones team made an open hit for three in the fourth end and stole two points in both the fifth and sixth ends.

"We weren’t really sure what to expect here, they are a very talented team and we have lost to them a couple of times this year," vice-skip Kaitlyn Lawes said. "We knew it would be tough and wanted to take it one shot at a time and luckily we got to take advantage of lots at times."

Canada’s men’s teams lost both of its games on Wednesday, with Calgary skip Kevin Koe dropping a 6-2 decision against Switzerland and Regina’s Matt Dunstone lost a close 7-6 match against Olympic champion John Shuster of the United States.

Canada’s mixed doubles teams split their games, with Edmonton’s Laura Walker and Saskatoon’s Kirk Muyres beating China 7-3 and Kadriana Sahaidak and Colton Lott of Winnipeg beach, Man., losing 6-5 to Norway.

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