Switzerland beat front-runners Canada to top table at World Women’s

With a 6-5 extra end win over Canada on Tuesday evening, Switzerland became the new round robin leaders at the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship 2026 after eleven round-robin sessions.

Unsurprisingly, this game between the top two ranked teams on the table was tight all the way, with Canada scoring the only two points of the game in the tenth to force the extra end.

Tied at 5-5, Swiss skip Xenia Schwaller drew her final stone of the extra end onto the button to score the one point that not only gave the Swiss a 6-5 win, but also put them at the top of the round robin rankings on six wins and one loss, replacing the Canadians.

Fabienne Rieder and Selina Rychiger, Switzerland © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Speaking about her last shot to win the game, Switzerland’s Schwaller said, “I felt quite comfortable about the draw.”

She added, “I’m very proud, we’re doing an amazing job. It’s quite tough out there, with back-to-back games. We knew if we beat Canada, we’d be in a great spot, so we’re looking forward to the rest of the week.”

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Earlier in the day, Canada had beaten Italy by 9-6 and, while they remain second on the rankings, Korea and Sweden sit close behind them.

Switzerland had also won earlier in the day, beating Denmark by 11-9 in the afternoon session.

Korea beat Turkiye by 12-7 in the afternoon session. By the eighth end of this game, the Koreans led by 9-7 when their skip Gim Eunji played a hit to score three points and improve her team’s lead to 12-7. Turkiye then conceded for what was a second successive loss that, for the moment, has put the brakes on their campaign so far.

Seol Yeeun and Seol Yeji, Korea © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Korea then came back on to the ice in the evening to face Australia. By the fourth end of this game, Korea were already 3-1 up when Gim Eunji played a hit to score a further three points and improve her team’s lead to 6-1. Australia conceded after eight ends and Korea left the ice with a 12-3 win.

Sweden had two wins on Tuesday. In the morning, they beat Scotland by 8-6 after an extra end, before returning to the ice in the evening session to beat United States by 7-4.

Linda Stenlund, Sweden © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Speaking about her win over Scotland, Sweden’s skip Isabella Wranaa said, “I feel like we played very well today. The Scots made some good shots against us, so it was a fight to the very end and I’m happy we came out with the win. I was just happy I had a pretty simple shot for my last one.”

She added, “It’s been a goal of ours for a long time to play in a championship, so we’re just happy to be here.”

In their evening game, they faced United States. By the ninth end of this game, Sweden led by 5-4 when Wranaa played a double take-out to add two more points from two of her stones already lying in the house, increasing her team’s lead to 7-4. Sweden then went on to win by that 7-4 scoreline.

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Japan, who now share fifth place with Turkiye on four wins and two losses, had a mixed day. They beat Australia by 7-2 in the morning but then went down to Scotland by 3-4 in the evening.

The game against Scotland was tight all the way, with never more than one point’s difference on the scoreline. In the eighth end, with the score tied at 2-2, Scotland’s skip Fay Henderson played a nose-hit to score one point and take a 3-2 lead. Scotland then went on to win by 4-3 after ten ends.

Lisa Davie, Scotland © World Curling / Anil Mungal

Afterwards, Scotland’s Henderson said, “It was a very low-scoring game which means that one small mistake is enough to cost you the game, so we just made sure we were sharp and on top of things. That was a big win, so we’re very happy with our performance so far.”

China had only one game on Tuesday, in which they beat United States by 6-1. By the ninth end of this game, China had built a 4-1 lead. Then, their fourth player Han Yu played a draw to score two more points, for a 6-1 lead. The Americans then conceded.

After this win, China skip Wang Rui said, “After the first few games, we’ve asked ourselves about our tactics — we think we’re starting to play better and better now.”

Han Yu, China © World Curling / Anil Mungal

Italy were another team with mixed fortunes on Tuesday. After going down by 6-9 to Canada, they recovered with an extra end 8-6 win over Norway.

This game had a low-scoring first half, with Norway going into the break holding a 2-1 lead. In the sixth end, Italy’s skip Stefania Constantini produced a nose-hit to score three points and take the lead, at 4-2. This game then went all the way to an extra end before Italy finally sealed their win, at 8-6.

Elena Mathis, Italy © World Curling / Anil Mungal

Afterwards, Constantini said, “It’s really good to have this win here after some losses. We’ve really tried to fix some things that were missing. In previous games, we gave our opponents too many chances, so we have to work on our team-work, line and sweeping.”