Olympics-Curling-Schwaller's Switzerland beat Canada to remain unbeaten at Games

By Aadi Nair

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Yannick Schwaller's Switzerland continued their perfect start at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday, beating Brad Jacobs's Canada 9-5 to remain the only undefeated team in the men's competition.

Switzerland's fourth Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel threw with laser-guided accuracy to restrict Canada whenever they had the hammer, while also ensuring his own team kept the scoreboard ticking over.

"He's an amazing player. He's always been. There's not a lot of guys that I want to have four-rocks throwing for me. And he has won," Schwaller said of Schwarz-van Berkel.

"I'm very happy with him. First of all, he's a great human being. It's fun to play with him. If he's in the zone like today and we're understanding each other well, it's so easy."

Switzerland top the standings with four wins from four, ahead of Canada and Britain in joint second.

Canada had won their first three matches, including a victory over Olympic champions Sweden in a heated clash on Friday.

Sweden were also in action on Saturday, picking up their first win by beating China 6-4, while tournament favourites Britain defeated the Czech Republic 7-4.

BRITAIN'S WOMEN BEAT CANADA

Sophie Jackson's Britain beat favourites Canada 7-6 on Saturday to register their first win of the women's curling competition.

Britain are defending champions, though Jennifer Dodds is the only one left from the gold-winning line-up in Beijing, with previous skip Eve Muirhead retiring soon after that victory.

"All four of us shot really well and they had an absolutely amazing game. More of the same, please," Jackson said.

Canada are two-times world champions and favourites to win gold, but skip Rachel Homan's record at the Olympics is poor.

She has participated in the past two Games, finishing outside the qualification spots for the semi-finals on both occasions.

Silvana Tirinzoni's Switzerland, who had won their first two games, lost 7-5 to Sayaka Yoshimura's Japan while hosts Italy suffered their third straight defeat, going down 8-7 to China.

Teams play nine matches in the round-robin stage, which continues later on Saturday. The top four advance to the semi-finals next week.