Jacobs beats Bottcher, advances to semifinals at Grand Slam of Curling opener in Victoria

Brad Jacobs defeated Brendan Bottcher 5-3 in an all-Canadian men’s quarterfinal at the Grand Slam of Curling's Co-op Invitational in Victoria on Saturday, extending the Olympic champions’ record to 5-0 in the tournament.

Fellow Canadian Kerri Einarson advanced to the semifinals on the women's side after scoring three with the game's final stone to edge Japan's Miyu Ueno 6-5, avenging a 9-4 round-robin loss on Wednesday at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

Einarson's rink from Gimli, Man., will face South Korea's Gim Eun-ji on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET, with live coverage available on CBC Sports Primetime — CBC's new Saturday-night sports show on CBC TV and CBC Gem.

Jacobs will next face Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller, who advanced by knocking out reigning Brier champion Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg, 5-3.

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Switzerland's Xenia Schwaller plays South Korea's Kang Bo-bae in the other women's semifinal. Fellow Swiss skip Marco Hösli will take on Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell for the other men's final berth.

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Jacobs's Calgary-based team, playing its first event in six months, never trailed in Saturday's quarterfinal.

Jacobs opened with a single before Bottcher made a draw to the button in the second. Jacobs then played an angle raise shot with his last rock of the third, threading the needle to remove a Bottcher stone and score two.

Bottcher's Edmonton rink answered with another single in the fourth, but Jacobs scored another in the fifth. Bottcher was forced to one in the sixth when his difficult last-rock attempt for two points fell short. Jacobs couldn’t find the second point in the seventh and settled for a single, and Bottcher