Jones into Grand Slam Tour Challenge Semis

Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones continues to show up in big games, winning 7-4 against Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni Saturday morning at the HearingLife Tour Challenge. Jones with Karlee Burgess at third, Emily Zacharias at second and Lauren Lenentine at lead join fellow Canadian rinks skipped by Kerri Einarson and Kaitlyn Lawes in the HearingLife Tour Challenge alongside Anna Hasselborg's Swedish-side. Jones held Tirinzoni to a single point in the first end, then scored two in the second end with their first try with hammer. After teams traded singles in the third and fourth ends, Tirinzoni got their first two of the game to take a 4-3 lead. Jones responded getting two more back in the sixth end to put them up 5-4. Tirinzoni blanked the seventh end, setting up the final end, where Jones controlled play, with shot stone on the back of the button. 4th rock thrower Alina Paetz made an angle runback to open up the scoring area with her first stone, but Jones responded with the freeze on the button to lie two her with last shot. A hail mary attempt from Paetz failed to scoring, giving Jones two more points and a 7-4 win. Jones advances to the semifinals where they will play Hasselborg, while Einarson (Gimli) will face-off against Lawes (Winnipeg) in an all-Manitoba battle. Lawes won 7-4 over Korea's Eunji Gim and Einarson won 7-4 against Italy's Stefania Constantini to advance through the quarterfinals. With all her success over the years, the Hearing Life Tour Challenge is one Grand Slam event that Jones has not won, with a career record of 19 wins and 17 losses in 7 appearances. With the win, Jones improved to 16-10 on the season, their fifth event played after opening the season reaching the final of the Saville Shootout in Edmonton. However, since the the season has been a struggle for Jones, missing the playoffs at the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic, the PointsBet Invitational where they lost in round 2, then again at last weekend's Players' Open in Dundas. Games go tonight at 7:30 pm Eastern Time (6:30 pm Central Time) on Sportsnet with Around-The-Rings coverage of the men's and women's semifinals from the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls.