World Curling Championship - Sweden grab thrilling win over United States

Also, with six play-off places available at the end the round-robin stage, Switzerland had a vital extra-end win, by 9-8 over China, that kept them firmly amongst the play-off contenders – in fifth position.

Also, during this 14th session of round-robin games, Russia beat Germany 7-4, which moved them into second place in the standings and Japan bounced back from an earlier defeat, to win against Finland, 10-4.

Sweden opened the scoring in their game against United States with two points in the first end. By the half-time break they had established a 5-2 lead.

However, with a score of two points in the sixth end followed by a single point steal in the seventh end, United States worked their way back to 5-5. Then, Jamie Sinclair’s United States team went in front after scoring another two points in the ninth end, for a 7-6 lead.

However, Anna Hasselborg’s Olympic champion Swedish team crafted the tenth end well, protecting three tightly bunched stones over the button. Sinclair attempted to remove these with her final stone, but hit a guard on the way in handing the win to the Swedes, 9-8.

Sweden’s vice-skip Sara McManus said after the game, "We didn’t expect that [from United States].

"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."