CurlingZone: Gushue and Retornaz fill out semifinal bracket

It'll be Gushue (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) against Mouat and Retornaz versus McEwen in the men's semifinals at the 2024 Princess Auto Players' Championship.

By: Cameron Sallaj

In the men's quarterfinals Saturday afternoon in Toronto, two teams picked up wins to move into the semifinals while two teams seasons came to an end.

It was a tale of two halves in the first semifinal between Scotland's Team Ross Whyte and Newfoundland and Labrador's Team Brad Gushue. The Scotts came out of the gate quick, capitalizing on mistakes by the Canadian champions to take a 3-1 lead after three ends.

From then on, however, Gushue and co. were able to wrestle control back with deuces of their own in ends for and six, eventually scoring one with the hammer in the eighth end to take a 6-5 victory.

The other quarterfinal game was not so close, however, as right from the first end Italy's Joel Retornaz led and did not look back, routing Sweden's Niklas Edin 7-2.

The Italian side, who won bronze at the world championships last week, took two in the first before forcing the Swedes to one in the second. After a single in three, they stole a point in the fourth for a strong 4-1 lead.

Two more in six by the four-time slam champs gave them a comfortable 6-2 lead late in the game. With a hero shot for two in the seventh, Edin gave up another steal before conceding.

With the win, Gushue and Retornaz move into the semifinals where they will each be tested. In one, Team Gushue will face Team Bruce Mouat (4-1; Stirling, SCO) in a rematch of the world championship semifinal from last weekend. In the other, Team Retornaz takes on top seeded Team Mike McEwen (4-1; Saskatoon, SK) who is looking for his first Slam title since 2018.

The women's semis are also big matchups with Team Rachel Homan taking on Team Silvana Tirinzoni and Team Isabella Wrana battling Team Gim Eun-ji.

Around the rings coverage of the semifinal games gets underway at 7:30 PM Eastern Time.

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