Scotland ease past Denmark to move up to joint third

The Danes were still looking for their first win when they faced the Scots with regular skip Lene Nielsen, who has been suffering hip problems, put on the bench for the game and replaced by Madeleine Dupont.

But the Scots were unrelenting, racing into a 4-0 lead at the break before Dupont scored her team's only two points of the game with a hit that reduced Scotland's lead to 4-2.

Muirhead increased the lead to 5-2 in the seventh end though before a further steal of two made it 7-2, after which Denmark conceded.

The win put Scotland into shared third place with Sweden, who they play next on Monday evening, behind joint undefeated leaders Canada and Switzerland.

Muirhead said: "That was really good actually. We bounced back and learned from a slack second half yesterday. We got off to a strong start again but this time continued it into the second half.

"I think for us that was important because we've got a big game tonight against Sweden. It was important to finish on a good note in that game. The girls are playing really well and we've got a fantastic coaching team that's helping us a lot."

Canada had earlier opened the day with a 7-5 win over the USA while Korea beat Denmark 8-7, Russia edged past the Czech Republic 9-7 and Sweden beat Germany 6-4.

The second session of the day saw Scotland take to the ice for their win over Denmark while hosts China carved out their first win, beating 7-6 with a final end single steal.

Italy also beat the Czech Republic 8-6, while Switzerland beat Russia 12-7.

Sportsbeat 2017