Curling news - World Women's Curling Championship: Sweden hold their nerve to top standings

Sweden held their nerve to remain at the top of the standings at the end of the fifth day of action with a 9-7 victory over Jamie Sinclair's United States team in Silkeborg, Denmark. Anna Hasselborg's Swedish team, who clinched gold at PyeongChang 2018, opened the game with two points in the first end before establishing a 5-2 lead by the half-time break.

But two points in the sixth end, followed by a single point steal in the seventh, saw the United States draw level before taking the lead with another two points in the ninth end.

Sweden fought back to prevail 9-8 in the Silkeborg Sportscentre, though, and speaking afterwards, vice-skip McManus conceded it was far from plain sailing against the States.

"We didn't expect that [from United States]," she said. "I think we became a little loose in the second half and that is not something we wanted to do.

"It kept us on our toes and we played a really good last end. It was a little bit of a struggle out there."

Elsewhere, Switzerland had a vital extra-end win by 9-8 over China to remain amongst the play-off contenders in fifth position – with six places available at the end of the round-robin stage.

The 14th session of round-robin games also included a comfortable 7-4 win for Russia over Germany – to move them second in the standings, while Japan defeated Finland 10-4.