China's Ba Dexin (1st L) and Wang Rui (2nd L) compete during the curling mixed doubles round robin session of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games between China and Switzerland at the Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, South Korea, on Feb. 8, 2018. China lost 5-7. (Xinhua/Wang Song)
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's mixed doubles curling team lost to Switzerland 5-7 in their first match in the round robin session at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics here on Thursday.
Wang Rui and Ba Dexin, bronze medalists in the World Mixed Doubles Championship in 2017 and silver medalists in 2016, took the lead in the first end but were levelled in the second by their Swiss opponents.
The two teams were locked in a tie after a seesaw battle in seven ends and a controversial eighth end. In the ninth end, the Swiss earned two more points and sealed the match 7-5.
"In the end, I was lucky," said Swiss player Martin Rios after the match.
"I can not say that I have too many regrets, though both sides made a mistake in the eighth end by touching a little bit our stone," said Chinese player Ba.
Due to the incident, the referee made the call that the Chinese side only got one point instead of two in the eighth end, which led to a play-off in the ninth end.
"The Swiss team is very strong. In fact, every team that can show up in the Olympics is strong... We just need to play our best in every match and show the world the spirit of the Chinese athletes. As for the final results, we will see in a week," said Ba.
Chinese coach Zhang Zhipeng said that the performance of Wang and Ba were okay on the whole but they were not in their best form. "They were a little bit stressed in their first match," he said.
In the morning's other matches, the United States beat Olympic Athletes from Russia 9-3, Norway outclassed Canada 9-6, and host South Korea defeated Finland 9-4.
