Jones, Jacobs rebound from lopsided losses at Players’ Championship

Jennifer Jones and Brad Jacobs bounced back from lopsided tournament-opening losses with victories in Wednesday’s early draw at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Players’ Championship.
Winnipeg’s Jones, who was defeated 9-2 by Sweden’s Isabella Wrana in Tuesday’s tournament-opening draw, scored one in the seventh end and stole two in the eighth for an 8-5 win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini.
Jacobs and Reid Carruthers scored two in the eighth end in a 6-5 win over Calgary’s Kevin Koe. They were at the wrong end of a rare curling shutout on Tuesday, losing 9-0 to Scotland’s Bruce Mouat.
The season-ending Players’ Championship will be the last Grand Slam event for Jones, who says she will retire from four-player curling.
Jones has won 17 Grand Slam titles along with six Canadian titles, two world championships and an Olympic gold medal over her career.
In other Draw 4 action, Switzerland’s Xenia Schwaller (1-1) posted a 6-4 win over Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., (0-2) and Scotland’s James Craik (1-1) scored one in an extra end for a 7-6 win over Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (1-1).
In the day’s second draw, Mouat improved to 2-0 with an 8-5 win over Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L.
Mouat cemented the victory with four in the eighth end and got a measure of revenge on Gushue, who defeated the Scotsman in the round robin and the semifinals en route to claiming the silver medal at last week’s men’s world championship.
Wrana and Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni also improved to 2-0. Wrana posted an 8-3 win over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa (0-2) while Tirinzoni downed South Korea’s Kim Eunjung 6-4.
Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone evened his record at 1-1 with a 7-4 win over Italy’s Joel Retornaz (0-2).