Jones Wins 10th Grand Slam Title
Choke on that, haters! Jones wins again, taking her first Grand Slam title in 2,163 days winning 7-4 over Kaitlyn Lawes in the final of the HearingLife Tour Challenge in Niagara Falls.
The vitriol for Jones is palpable any time she's having success, as is often, which is followed by a faction of haters make their jealousy and boorish behvaviour known for a player who is one of the greatest players to ever put on a pair of curling shoes and the 'GOAT' in many eyes.
It's been a while since Jones has won a Grand Slam event, 27 days short of 6 years dating back to October 2017 at the Masters of Curling in Lloydminster, Alberta, though she has contniued to remain relevant in women's curling ranking consistently ranking well inside the top 10 the world.
Lawes, once the student as longtime teammate of Jones, now in her second year with Selena Njegovan, Jocelyn Peterman and Kristin MacCuish opened by scoring 1 with hammer, the front end putting Kaitlyn's last shot onto the button. In the second end, Lawes was hitting the lie two to get the important force, but her last rock overcurled leaving Jones a hit for three.
In the third end, Lawes had a double for two, instead hitting the shooter too thick and rolling across the top to leave Jones with a stolen point and a 4-1 lead. Lawes settled down in the third end, her sweepers watching her draw for two come to rest in the four foot to cut the deficit to one point.
In the fifth end, Jones showed herself the as the clutch shotmaker, making a short runback to score two, then in the sixth end she made a great draw to lie two make Lawes' last shot very difficult to get more than one.
Leading 6-4 in the seventh end, Jones drew for a single point to go up three and ran her fellow Manitoban out of rocks for the win.
Jones continues to be great in the game, bringing along another team of young stars in Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias and Lauren Lenentine, and taking them to new heights, much like she did with Lawes, who's breakout this week reaching their first Slam final is a great step forward for a team billing themselves as being on Year 1, 2.0.
The win is Jones' 10th of her career and the first time winning the Grand Slam Tour Challenge, one of the newer events meant to open doors for more teams with the Tier 2 division. Korea's EunJung Kim won 7-4 over Madeleine Dupont of Denmark to ean a spot into the Co-op Canadian Open in Red Deer in January.
In the semifinals, Jones defeated Anna Hasselborg (Sundbyberg, SWE) 7-5 and Lawes defeated Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Manitoba, 6-4. In the quarterfinals, Jones defeated Silvana Tirinzoni (Aarau, SUI) 7-4, Lawes defeated Eun ji Gim (Uijeongbu, South Korea) 7-4, while Einarson defeated Stefania Constantini (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy) 7-4 and Hasselborg defeated Rebecca Morrison (Stirling, SCO) 8-5.
Jones finished 2-2 in the 16-team qualifying round. In their opening game, Jones defeated Seungyoun Ha (Chuncheon, KOR) 6-5, then went on to lose 6-4 against Rachel Homan (Ottawa, ON). Jones responded with a 6-2 win over Kate Cameron (Winnipeg, MB) and went on to lose 7-5 against Hasselborg in their final qualifying round match.
As for Jones, she continues to add to the career resume that puts her into contention as the GOAT.
The vitriol for Jones is palpable any time she's having success, as is often, which is followed by a faction of haters make their jealousy and boorish behvaviour known for a player who is one of the greatest players to ever put on a pair of curling shoes and the 'GOAT' in many eyes.
It's been a while since Jones has won a Grand Slam event, 27 days short of 6 years dating back to October 2017 at the Masters of Curling in Lloydminster, Alberta, though she has contniued to remain relevant in women's curling ranking consistently ranking well inside the top 10 the world.
Lawes, once the student as longtime teammate of Jones, now in her second year with Selena Njegovan, Jocelyn Peterman and Kristin MacCuish opened by scoring 1 with hammer, the front end putting Kaitlyn's last shot onto the button. In the second end, Lawes was hitting the lie two to get the important force, but her last rock overcurled leaving Jones a hit for three.
In the third end, Lawes had a double for two, instead hitting the shooter too thick and rolling across the top to leave Jones with a stolen point and a 4-1 lead. Lawes settled down in the third end, her sweepers watching her draw for two come to rest in the four foot to cut the deficit to one point.
In the fifth end, Jones showed herself the as the clutch shotmaker, making a short runback to score two, then in the sixth end she made a great draw to lie two make Lawes' last shot very difficult to get more than one.
Leading 6-4 in the seventh end, Jones drew for a single point to go up three and ran her fellow Manitoban out of rocks for the win.
Jones continues to be great in the game, bringing along another team of young stars in Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias and Lauren Lenentine, and taking them to new heights, much like she did with Lawes, who's breakout this week reaching their first Slam final is a great step forward for a team billing themselves as being on Year 1, 2.0.
The win is Jones' 10th of her career and the first time winning the Grand Slam Tour Challenge, one of the newer events meant to open doors for more teams with the Tier 2 division. Korea's EunJung Kim won 7-4 over Madeleine Dupont of Denmark to ean a spot into the Co-op Canadian Open in Red Deer in January.
In the semifinals, Jones defeated Anna Hasselborg (Sundbyberg, SWE) 7-5 and Lawes defeated Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Manitoba, 6-4. In the quarterfinals, Jones defeated Silvana Tirinzoni (Aarau, SUI) 7-4, Lawes defeated Eun ji Gim (Uijeongbu, South Korea) 7-4, while Einarson defeated Stefania Constantini (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy) 7-4 and Hasselborg defeated Rebecca Morrison (Stirling, SCO) 8-5.
Jones finished 2-2 in the 16-team qualifying round. In their opening game, Jones defeated Seungyoun Ha (Chuncheon, KOR) 6-5, then went on to lose 6-4 against Rachel Homan (Ottawa, ON). Jones responded with a 6-2 win over Kate Cameron (Winnipeg, MB) and went on to lose 7-5 against Hasselborg in their final qualifying round match.
As for Jones, she continues to add to the career resume that puts her into contention as the GOAT.