Zhou Yan (front R) and Ma Jingyi (front L) of China compete during women round robin event of curling against Switzerland at 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Curling Centre, Gangneung, South Korea, Feb. 14, 2018. China beat Switzerland 7:2 (Xinhua/Ma Ping)
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China eased past Switzerland 7-2 here on Wednesday for their opening win in the PyeongChang Winter Games women's curling competitions.
The Chinese team led by Vancouver Games bronze medalists Wang Bingyu and Zhou Yan built a comfortable 4-1 lead after the fourth end before scoring three points in the eighth to earn their first victory in the round-robin preliminaries.
Skipper Wang Bingyu was pleased with the surprisingly easy win over the 2016 world champions.
"It's our first game in the Olympics, against Swiss. I know they are very strong," Wang said. "We just tried our best. I think they made some mistakes. It's just the first game. We will be patient and prepare for the next games."
Manuela Siegrist of Switzerland admitted that China were the better team in their clash.
"They were more precise than we were. Like they made a lot of pressure, and we didn't put hold on this pressure," she said. "They played great. Actually, this team has been very good since years, they have a lot of experience. I think we have to take out from this match what we have to improve and keep going."
Also on Wednesday afternoon, Britain started with a 10-3 rout of Olympic Athletes from Russia while Japan beat the United States 10-5 and Denmark lost to Sweden 9-3.
Ten teams are competing in the women's curling competitions of the PyeongChang Games with the top four finishers from the round-robin to qualify for the semifinals.
In the men's round-robin which was starting on Wednesday morning, Sweden beat Denmark 9-5, Italy lost to Canada 5-3, the United States beat South Korea 11-7 and Britain edged Switzerland 6-5.
