MONCTON, N.B. April 5, 2009 (CCA)— Canada’s Kevin Martin has closed out the opening weekend of the Ford world men’s curling championship in a tie for top spot at the Moncton Coliseum.
Martin’s half-Edmonton (Martin, second Marc Kennedy) and half-Calgary (third John Morris, lead Ben Hebert) finished off a perfect weekend Sunday night with an 9-4 triumph over China’s Fengchun Wang.
With the victory, Canada improves to 3-0, tied with Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, who had the bye in Draw 5.
Canada took control of the game in the third end when Kennedy and Hebert were able to drag Martin’s last-rock draw to the four-foot to score three.
Martin scored three more in the fifth end to pad his lead.
“It’s all good so far; the guys are playing well and Benny really has control of things,” said Martin. “It’s nice to see the ice coming back; there was no frost tonight at all. (Head icemaker) Hans (Wuthrich) has it under control, and I told you he would. If it stays like this, we’ll be able to be very aggressive.”
In other action, John Shuster of the U.S. picked up his second win in three assignments Sunday night, piling up a 10-3 win over Ralph Stoeckli of Switzerland.
The Americans scored two in the first and three more in the second, and salted away the win with a steal of one in the fifth. The teams shook hands after the U.S. scored four in the seventh end. Switzerland dropped to 1-2 with the loss.
France’s Thomas Dufour, meanwhile, improved to 2-1 by knocking off Yusuke Morozumi of Japan 8-2. The French put deuces on the board in the first, fourth and eighth ends, and supplemented their lead with stolen singles in the second and fifth ends. Japan dropped to 1-2 after the loss.
In the other game, Scotland’s David Murdoch won his second straight, prevailing 11-8 in a wild game over Germany’s Andy Kapp. Each team put a four on the board — Germany in the third end, Scotland in the sixth, but Scotland’s three-point second end proved to be the difference as the Scots improved to 2-1 while Germany dropped to 1-2.
Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic (1-1), Ulrik Schmidt of Denmark (1-2) and Kalle Kiiskinen of Finland (1-2) also had byes in Draw 5.
Play at the Ford Worlds continues on Monday, when draws are scheduled for 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (all times Atlantic). TSN is televising the Canadian games, while coverage also is available at curltv.com.