WORLD WOMEN’S CHAMPS

Ankle injury has Murray in Wimbers sweat

A comfortable 7-2 defeat of Japan ensured that Scotland guaranteed themselves an eighth place finish at the BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship in Nova Scotia and with that claimed vital qualifying points in the bid to ensure that Team GB’S women will be able to defend their title when the Winter Olympics take place in Milancortina in 2026.

Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson went into the final day of round-robin matches knowing it had been confirmed with the previous evening’s results that they would not get through to the knockout stages.

However, they also knew that the Olympic qualifying system meant they had to set aside any sense of disappointment and ensure that they were in the right mindset for the first of their matches on the final day in particular.

At that stage the Scots had won one more match than the Japanese, but knew that if they lost that match it would mean their opponents could finish above them because of that head-to-head result, while defeat could also open the door to Norway to go past them in the table.

After a tense opening, which saw the first three ends blanked, they were finally forced to take a one to get their noses in front at the fourth, but the balance of the match shifted when both of Japan skip Miyu Ueno’s stones drew up well short of the house, allowing Scotland to claim a steal of three and they were never seriously troubled from that point.

“We knew going into today’s game against Japan that it would be a really important game for where we finished in the table,” said Scottish skip Rebecca Morrison, a coach for Active Stirling.

“We knew we hadn’t qualified for the play-offs, but every win’s important this year and staying up the table is going to count in the long run so we’re pleased to get that.

“Our three really set the tone for the game. After that we were very much in command and looking good for the win, so we were pleased with that team performance out there.”

As the day began the USA had been the only team the Scots could have overhauled in the table.

Consequently when they won their match against Estonia ahead of their final game against bottom-of-the-table New Zealand, it meant Team Morrison almost certainly knew where they would finish when they met unbeaten table toppers and hosts Canada in their own final match, which was also their first meeting with current world number one Team Homan.

This time around, however, it was their opponents’ turn to register a three early in the match which allowed them to control the scoreboard in running out 8-2 winners and the Scottish skip fully shouldered the blame for their defeat.

“I’m disappointed with the way the game went against Homan,” said Morrison.

“To be honest, the team played away well, but I just didn’t come out to play that game, which was disappointing.

“It’s not nice to finish like that, so I’m a bit gutted with how it went.

“We went into it knowing we could play freely, took on the game from the early ends and in end two we went really aggressive, but it didn’t pay off.

“They played some really great shots and took that three and it was hard to come back from that.”

Having recovered from a perilous position after they suffered five successive losses early in the event, the Scots took some satisfaction with the way they recovered to finish with a record of five wins and seven losses.

“Top seven in points at the Worlds over these two years will qualify for the Olympics, so with Italy being in the play-offs it means we’ve actually finished seventh in terms of Olympic points and we’ve set ourselves up well,” Morrison observed.

“A good year next year and hopefully GB will get that spot without having to go to the Olympic Qualifying Event.

“That would be lovely, so we’re delighted to put ourselves in a position that that is possible next year.”

She noted, too, that they had demonstrated that they have the capacity to compete with the best on the big stage when inflicting just Switzerland’s second loss in 44 World Championship matches midway through the event.

“Overall it’s a mixed bag of emotions this week,” said Morrison.

“We finished in a great place in that we got lots of wins from our last few games.

“After the Switzerland game we’ve been on a good journey and we’re feeling alright right now, but the first half of the competition was quite disappointing and that’s what’s affected our final position.

“We would have liked to have got a couple more wins in the first half of the competition, but because we’ve ended the week on a good run we’ve come away from the week feeling ok and we’re just glad to have finished off better than how we started the week.

“We really would have loved to have made play-offs and take it further for Scotland, but it wasn’t meant to be this week.

“Hopefully we’ll get another chance next year to come out and try again.”

Andy Murray’s Wimbledon plans were thrown in to disarray at the weekend when he picked up a nasty ankle injury that could hamper his season“for weeks”.

The Dunblane ace revealed that he suffered a serious injury late in the third-round Miami Open clash on Sunday with the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac.

Prior to injuring his ankle, the 36-year-old appeared to be furious with umpire Carlos Bernardes for failing to control the movement of spectators around the Butch Buchholz court as he lost his serve at the end of the second set.

Czech Machac then raced into a 3-0 lead in the decider and eventually closed out a 5-7 7-5 7-6 (7/5) victory in three hours and 27 minutes, but only after Murray had survived the injury scare and saved a match point to force the tie-break.

Murray had taken the first set after finally capitalising on his ninth break point and, following a 40-minute rain delay, the second set looked destined for a tie-break until Murray lost his serve in the 12th game.

Murray’s frustrations with fans moving between points boiled over and he could be heard shouting to Bernardes: “Useless, useless.”

In response to an unheard reply from Bernardes, Murray responded: “What are you talking about? It’s quite obvious when people are standing up between every single point.”

It was no surprise that a distracted Murray then lost his serve at the start of the decider but Machac was unable to close out the match at 5-3, serving two double faults as he let Murray back into the contest.

Murray looked to have all the momentum but then seemed to twist his ankle as he ran towards the net after levelling at 5-5, the former world number one thankfully able to continue after being assessed by a tournament physio.

Murray refused to throw in the towel and saved a match point on his own serve to take the contest to a decisive tie-break which he led 5-3, only for Machac to reel off four points in a row to complete a remarkable win.

However, after the match, Murray revealed that the ankle injury was more serious than initially thought.

“Yesterday towards the end of my match in Miami I suffered a full rupture of my ATFL and near full thickness rupture of my CFL,” Murray posted on Instagram.

“I will see an ankle specialist when I return home to determine next steps.

“Goes without saying this is a tough one to take and I’ll be out for an extended period.

“But I’ll be back with one hip and no ankle ligaments when the time is right.”

Central AC made it a hat-trick when they claimed gold at the National Road Relays for the third year in a row over the weekend.

Gusting winds brought down a large tree over the long lap route less than 24 hours prior to the event in Livingston.

But Central AC refused to be blown off course the following day and duly‘logged’yet more team success on the roads in the Senior and V40 Men 6x relay.

The Livingston event is always hugely popular, with 154 teams taking part.

Central duly headed the Senior Men’s field for the third year in a row to land gold with a strong lineup.

The Central team was made up of Ben Macmillan, Cameron Milne, Alastair Marshall, Luca Fanottoli, Kieran Reilly and Calum Phillip.

They romped home, ahead of Giffnock North AC, in a time of 2:17:41.

Central AC often start favourites in these events and there were early signs they would prove unstoppable.

Macmillan and Milne gave them a strong start and the advantage was not to be relinquished when they were followed by Marshall, Fanottoli and Reilly. Callum Phillip had the anchor leg as Central celebrated three-in-row.

“It’s the first time I’ve been on the anchor leg and there is a different pressure I think than from running earlier in the race,” said Phillip.

“The team had set it up well for with a lead but you are there to be chased. I was aware Duncan Robinson was having a strong run for Giffnock as they came into second and you just want to close it out and win the golds.”