China beats Italy for first victory in men's curling at Milan-Cortina

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy -- China secured its first round-robin win by defeating host Italy in the eighth session of the men's curling competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games here on Monday.

After racing to a 4-0 lead, China absorbed an Italian response in the fourth end and then took control with a decisive four in the fifth, going on to close out an 11-4 victory.

China's skip Xu Xiaoming said the team found extra motivation with Chinese New Year approaching.

"Firstly, everyone is so excited, especially today as it's [the eve of] the Chinese New Year. We got our first win beating the host nation Italy with a large crowd cheering for them. There was a lot of pressure on our side, but we kept calm, focused on our performance and won the game," Xu said.

Asked what changed, Xu added: "Everybody desires medals and feels this pressure, but today we forgot about that. We just focused on our own performance, stayed composed and played our game."

In other men's matches, Germany kept its semifinal hopes alive by beating 2022 Olympic champion Sweden 7-3. Canada defeated the Czech Republic 8-2, while Norway edged Britain 7-6.

Switzerland leads the standings with five wins. Canada is second with five wins and one loss, while Norway and the United States are tied at 4-2.

In the women's competition, Sweden stayed unbeaten with a sixth straight victory, beating world No 1 Switzerland 6-4. Switzerland later bounced back to beat Britain 10-6 to improve to 4-2.

Elsewhere, South Korea edged China 10-9, Italy beat the United States 7-2, and Canada defeated Japan 9-6.