Scotland, Russia and the Olympic champions Canada only played one game on the first day of the tournament and share third place after recording victories.

Switzerland, led by skip Alina Paetz, got their campaign underway against hosts Japan and took a 2-1 lead in the fourth end, before going on to claim a 5-3 victory.

In their second game of the day they faced a United States side who had fallen to a 12-4 defeat to Russia in their first fixture, owed primarily to Russia gaining four points in the seventh end, to all but end the game as a contest.

The US team performed much better against the Swiss team as they fought back to draw level at 5-5 after nine ends, but Paetz drew the final stone of the game into the house to gain a point and give her team a 6-5 win.

China enjoyed an equally good start to the Championships, battling back from 3-0 down to defeat Norway 10-6, before overcoming Germany 7-5 after the match was forced to an extra end after the scores had been level after ten ends had been played.

"This has been a very close day and the task for us is to get used to the ice," China skip Sijia Liu stated afterwards.

"The German team was very strong too."

China beat Germany and Norway to sit joint top after the first day of competition at the World Women's Curling Championships in Sapporo ©World Curling Federation



Germany, who like China, Switzerland and US played two matches on the opening day of the tournament, had earned a victory in the early session, beating Sweden 6-4.

Sochi 2014 Olympic champions Canada had a scare as began their round robin campaign, as they saw a 5-2 lead slip against Finland, but recouped to secure a 9-6 win.

"Not exactly to plan, we struggled a little bit with the ice but a win's a win and we found a way to win the game," Canada skip Jennifer Jones admitted.

"We'll have to be sharper tomorrow."

Scotland, led by Olympic bronze medallist Eve Muirhead, also got off to a winning start to the tournament by beating Denmark 7-5 and will face Canada and Japan in their two matches tomorrow.

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