YORKTON, Sask. – Ottawa’s Rachel Homan scored a pair in the final end for an 8-7 victory over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones in Sunday’s final at the Canadian Open. It was the third straight Grand Slam victory for Homan, who won the Masters and the National earlier this season.
“Jones played really well,” Homan said. “They came out firing and we had a couple misses here and there and they had some really well-deserved twos and threes and we had to battle back really hard in that game.”
Jones jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but Homan bounced back for three in the second to take a one-point advantage. Jones fired back in the third with three of her own before Homan added singles in each of the next three ends. Both teams traded deuces in the last two ends to round out the scoring.
Homan’s lead, Lisa Weagle, had a game-high 89 per cent shooting percentage.
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Toronto’s John Epping defeated Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 7-4 in the men’s final. It was the first Grand Slam title for Epping in four seasons.
Epping broke the game open in the sixth by scoring three.
“It feels unbelievable. It’s just so tough to win a Grand Slam,” Epping said. “All the top teams in the world and to beat three or four of them this week all in a row, it’s just so hard to do. That’s what I think makes it so rewarding at the end of the day.”
The Canadian Open is the third major of the Grand Slam season.
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