Jones off to strong start as she aims for another Players’ Championship title

TORONTO – Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones maintained her strong start at the Players’ Championship while Ottawa’s Rachel Homan continued to stumble.

Jones, the Pool A leader and reigning world champion, downed Homan 8-4 on Thursday in the second women’s draw of the day to improve to 4-0 at the Grand Slam of Curling tournament. Homan is winless through four games.

Jones started her day with an 8-7 victory over Edmonton’s Team Rocque skipped by Laura Crocker.

Anna Hasselborg of Sweden stayed undefeated at 3-0 in Pool B with a 6-2 win over Silvana Tirizoni in the late afternoon draw.

In other women’s action, Eve Muirhead of Scotland doubled up Team Rocque 8-4, American Nina Roth defeated EunJung Kim of South Korea 6-3 and Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson beat Chelsea Carey of Calgary 7-4.

Muirhead is second behind Jones in Pool A with a 3-1 record while Team Rocque and Roth are 2-2. Kim is 1-3 followed by Homan.

American Jamie Sinclair is second in Pool A at 2-1. Carey, Einarson, Tirinzoni and Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa are tied at 1-2.

On the men’s side, Calgary’s Kevin Koe (3-0) stayed undefeated, rallying with a four-point eighth end in an 8-5 win over American John Shuster in the late draw.

Shuster (1-2) began his day with a 7-2 loss to Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., in the afternoon. Gushue (3-1) beat Toronto’s John Epping 5-4 in the evening, scoring a single in the eighth for the victory.

In other evening action, Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson doubled up Scotland’s Bruce Mouat 8-4, Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg downed Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 9-4, and Mike McEwen, also from Winnipeg, defeated Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 5-2.

Jacobs fell to 1-3 in Pool A with the loss. Epping is last in Pool B at 1-3.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin is tied for the Pool-A lead with Scotland’s Kyle Smith at 2-1. Gunnlaugson, McEwen and Mouat are all 2-2.

Bottcher, Carruthers and Shuster are 1-2 in Pool B.