Homan tops Grandy in opening women's draw at Grand Slam's Tour Challenge

Rachel Homan opened the Grand Slam season on Tuesday with a 4-3 victory over fellow Canadian Clancy Grandy at the HearingLife Tour Challenge in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Homan, the defending champion from Ottawa, scored a single point in the eighth end for the win.

Clancy, from Coquitlam, B.C., picked up back-to-back steals to tie the game but Homan, who now lives in Beaumont, Alta., used the hammer to her advantage in the final end.

In other early women's games, Kerri Einarson of Camp Morton, Man., posted a 5-3 win over Kate Cameron of New Bothwell, Man.

Jennifer Jones of Springwater, Ont., edged South Korea's Seungyoun Ha 6-5 and Sweden's Anna Hasselborg beat Italy's Stefania Constantini 8-4.

In the opening men's draw, Calgary's Kevin Koe topped Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers 5-4 and Scotland's Ross Whyte defeated Sweden's Niklas Edin 8-5.

American John Shuster beat Scotland's Bruce Mouat 6-5 and Italy's Joel Retornaz edged Japan's Riku Yanagisawa 5-4.

Two more draws were scheduled for later in the day at the Gale Centre.

Reigning world champs Bruce Mouat of Scotland and Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland are among the headliners at the Gale Centre. Round-robin play continues through Friday ahead of the weekend playoffs.

In yet another nod to the sport's improved international depth, this season there are only 12 Canadian teams among the 32 total Tier-1 entries — six in the women's draw and six in the men's pool.

Nine different countries are represented in each 16-team draw.

Canada hasn't won a four-player team medal at the Games since 2014. The country's world championship drought dates back to 2017 for the men (Brad Gushue) and 2018 for the women (Jennifer Jones).

World ranking positions are used to determine the entries at the