Scotland women face holders Canada in world curling play-off

Scotland will face reigning champions Canada in the play-offs at the World Women’s Curling Championship on Saturday.

Sophie Jackson’s rink will hope to repeat their surprise 8-7 win over Rachel Homan’s world number one ranked side in their round-robin opener at the start of the week to reach the semi-final against hosts South Korea.

Scotland, ranked 19th, finished sixth in the table after beating Denmark but losing to China on Friday, while the Canadians were third.

Going into Friday’s three sessions, it was between Jackson’s rink, Denmark and China to secure the two remaining places in the top six.

A win for Madeleine Dupont’s 30th-ranked Danes over Scotland in the morning session would have put the three sides level on six wins each.

However, Jackson’s side prevailed 10-5 to secure progress for themselves and China before those two sides met in the afternoon.

The Scots were then beaten 7-2 by Rui Wang’s rink, who sit two places above them in the world rankings, after just seven ends of the afternoon session to finish with seven wins and five defeats.

That secured fifth spot for the Chinese before they went on to lose 7-5 to the reigning champions, who had already qualified along with Switzerland, Sweden and South Korea.

Four-time world champion Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss topped the round-robin with 11 wins and one defeat, with Eunji Gim’s hosts taking the other automatic semi-final spot after they and Canada both finished with 10 wins, while Anna Hasselborg’s Sweden were fourth on nine wins.

It means Sweden and China meet in the other play-off for the right to face the Swiss in Saturday’s other semi-final.