Paetz gets Swiss women's world title defence off to perfect start

Binia Feltscher-Beeli skipped Switzerland to victory last year but this time the quartet is led by Aline Paetz, her team newcomers at this level.

But they didn't show any nerves at all on the big stage as after Paetz put the Swiss 2-1 ahead in the fourth end hosts Japan were downed 5-3.

Paetz, speaking about her draw in the fourth end, said: "It was the game-changer. We were always under pressure before that. I was nervous about drawing, but I did it, so it's OK.

"It's really important to get off to a winning start, especially for us, being the first time at the World Women's Championship."

Meanwhile, it took them an extra end but Germany also got off to a winning start as they beat Sweden 6-4.

To create the extra-end chance for herself, Germany skip Daniela Driendl had to draw her final stone of the tenth end into the house around a Swedish stone, scoring two points and levelling the game at 4-4.

After that, Sweden's fourth player Maria Prytz came up short with her final stone, giving Germany a two-point steal for their 6-4 win.

Elsewhere, Norway faced China and Norwegian skip Kristin Skaslien gave herself a good start, drawing her final stone of the first end into the house to open the scoring with three points.

In the fourth end it was China's turn to score three points when their skip Sijia Liu drew the final stone of the end and take a 5-4 lead.

China went on to score two points in the eighth end and steal a further one point in the ninth end, after which Norway conceded to give China a 10-6 win.

In the game between USA and Russia, the turning point came in the seventh end when Russia's skip Anna Sidorova hit out a USA stone and scored four points to take the lead at 9-4, before eventually winning 12-4.

© Sportsbeat 2015