Switzerland and Sweden keep up pressure on Canada with third Championship victories

Leading 2-1 heading into the fourth end, the Swiss turned the screw as Benoit Schwarz drew his stone to score two points and a significant three-point advantage.

The same man was to repeat the trick in the sixth end, with the same double-score result moving Switzerland 6-2 ahead, eventually rounding off a 7-4 win for their third win from four so far.

"I think we are playing well enough to get to the play-offs, so that's the goal," said skip Peter De Cruz.

"We were ahead from the start and we said we are going to keep playing offensive because we know against the top teams Sweden, Canada, Norway we are going to have to play an aggressive game."

Sweden joined them with a 3-1 record after getting the better of newcomers Norway, losing their second match of the Championships.

Sitting at 1-1 prior to the fourth end, Sweden skip Niklas Edin perfectly pierced the guard to take two for his side, but it was in the ninth end where the major blow came.

With the game still tight, Sweden took four with their penultimate effort which proved decisive in their chances of victory, eventually holding on for an 8-4 success against their Scandinavian counterparts.

Third player Oscar Eriksson said: "It felt like we played better this game. We had a bit of issues with figuring out the rocks, so we need to get our rocks in better places and make sure we understand the line and weight a bit quicker than we did in this game."

The other matches of the session saw the USA pick up their second win of the campaign, defeating Italy 8-6 to leave both teams sitting on a 2-2 record.

That's also the way Scotland and China lie in a congested middle area in the Championship's early stages, with the latter side prevailing 9-7.

The seventh session sees hosts Canada back in action, looking to defend their 100 per cent start when they take on Scotland.

The Netherlands face China looking for their first win, while Norway take on winless Russia and Sweden do battle with Japan.

Sportsbeat 2017