Eve Muirhead scored her biggest win since returning from hip surgery by beating Swedish Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg at the World Cup in Omaha, Nebraska, but fellow Scot Bruce Mouat suffered back-to-back defeats in the men's event.
Hasselborg had won her last five tournaments, including the recent European Championships, but the Perth skip looked sharp in her opening game in Omaha and notched her second straight victory by stunning the Swede 6-2. Despite trailing early on, Muirhead dominated the rest of the match and now leads Hasselborg 13-12 in their career battles.
"That's a really big win for us!" smiled Muirhead. "Anna and her team have had a great couple of seasons and are the team on form, so to get a solid win against them is good for us and builds some momentum.
"The girls were excellent. We played well out there and the ice is excellent. We got our stones in good spots and put a lot of pressure on them. Anna and I know each other’s games inside out, so it all comes down to who makes the shots on the day. Today it was us."
Muirhead and her team-mates Lauren Gray, Vicki Chalmers and Jennifer Dodds now face Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa, who pipped them in a bronze medal play-off at the Winter Olympics in Korea in February. Fujisawa has also won her first two Pool B matches this week.
Mouat can still reach Sunday's final, but the Edinburgh skip is showing signs of fatigue following his momentous European title success less than a fortnight ago. Having won his opening Group A fixture, Mouat conceded six stones in two ends as he lost 8-3 to US Olympic gold medallist John Shuster. He then went down 5-3 to China's Qiang Zou and desperately needs to beat Canadian Jason Gunnlaugson to keep his final hopes alive.
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