Eve Muirhead back with a bang at World Championships

Olympic duties last year meant that Muirhead could not take part in the Scottish Championships and therefore could not represent Scotland at the 2014 World Championship in Canada.

The last time Muirhead played in this event was in 2013 when she won the title in Latvia, and she announced herself back in winning fashion in Sapporo, Japan.

Scotland won the right to have last stone advantage in the first end and opened the scoring with a single point.

The teams then swapped singles in the next three ends, but the Scottish breakthrough came in the fifth end when, after her team had split the house early in the end, Muirhead had a straightforward draw with her second stone to score two for a half-time 4-2 lead.

The Scots moved further ahead in the seventh, when Muirhead played a hit and just managed to keep her stone in the house to score two more points for a 6-3 lead.

Denmark scored one point in the eighth, with their skip Lene Neilson drawing her last stone, and then stole another single point in the ninth, when Muirhead’s final effort came up short .

But the Scots claimed their victory when, in the tenth end, Neilson jammed a Scottish stone on its way out of the house for a 7-5 win.

"We're really pleased with that, we played well," Muirhead said. "We knew the game was going to go all the way – all these games this week will, so we knew we had to be patient.

"We had lots of good ends in that game but to get the two in the fifth was great.

"We're really pleased to be back at the Worlds, last time we were allowed to play, we won it.

"This time we've got a slightly different line up with Sarah (Reid, new lead player) and she's fitted in really well. This is where our team belongs."

At the end of the first day of play, China and Switzerland sit at the top of the table unbeaten on two wins, while having played just one game, Canada and Russia share third spot with the Scots.