The Danes started with last stone advantage, and despite blanking, skip Nielsen had an open draw for two in the second end and a lead that she never gave up.

The teams swapped singles in the next two ends before Scotland skip Eve Muirhead came up short with her final draw of the fifth to give Denmark a steal of two and a 5-1 half-time lead.

The Scots blanked the sixth and then could only hit out for a score of one in the seventh end.

Two more points for Denmark with a simple draw in the eighth were enough to persuade the Scots to concede.

"It's a great start, winning the first game is always good, especially against Scotland who are a tough team whatever way you look at it," said Nielsen.

"It was important for us to get out there and get a feel for the ice.

"It sounds so simple but we played some really good key shots and we got the draw weight down pretty quickly, so we maintained the pressure."

Hungary beat Norway 8-5 in the evening's opening session of women's round-robin play, securing a first-ever A-Division win for skip Dorottya Palancsa and her team, following their promotion from last year's B-Division.

Norway opened the scoring with two points, but Hungary went into the fifth end break with a 4-2 lead.

A tight game eventually reached its conclusion when Norway skip Kristin Skaslien wrecked her last draw attempt in the 10th end, giving the Hungarians their win.

"We really wanted to start this competition with a victory, and we managed to do that," said Palancsa.

"In the first two ends we had some difficulties with the ice, then in the middle of the game we played really well.

"In the last end we made the situation more difficult for ourselves, luckily, we had a nice save, and we won the game, so we are really happy."

World champions Switzerland lost their opener, going down 8-2 to Russia in a game that saw their opponents score three points in each of the second and seventh ends.

Elsewhere, Sweden had a six-end 11-1 win over Finland, opening with four points in the first end and stealing four in the second end, while Germany beat Estonia by 9-2.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, a member of the International Olympic Committee, opened the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2015 with a well-delivered ceremonial stone.


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