Martin opens men's curling worlds with win

A total team effort got Canada off to a winning start at the Men's World Curling Championship.

Kevin Martin was quick to praise his front-end sweepers in Canada's 9-3 win over Johnny Frederiksen's Denmark rink in nine ends, with lead Ben Hebert, second Marc Kennedy, and third John Morris all making key contributions in the win.

That was most evident in the fifth end, as the trio all worked to get Martin a single point by helping a rock that looked light into the four-foot ring and give Canada a 5-2 lead.

"I'm not sure if any other front end gets that rock to the four-foot," said the Edmonton skip. "I was pretty light on that. I was pretty worried. They got it in by a foot."

For Kennedy, 26, having an accurate skip like Martin makes his job that much easier.

"As long as Kevin is in the vicinity, as long as he's close, and we do our job, it should be in the right spot."

Martin, looking to claim his first international title in his third appearance at the World Championships, got off to a quick start on Saturday.

With his last shot in the opening end, he drew to the four-foot ring to score three and then stole one in the second to take an early 4-0 lead. With another feather draw for three in the eighth, Martin pushed the lead to 8-3.

"We played pretty solid," said Martin. "Not real good, but pretty darn good, which is nice."

Martin was undoubtedly helped by a raucous Canadian contingent on hand at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in nearby Grand Forks, N.D.. Several Maple Leafs and supporters wearing red and white were visible in the stands.

Canada moves on to play Sweden on Sunday afternoon and Australia in the evening.

"Sweden has beat us up lots over the years," Martin said. "We have to be ready."

In other late action on Saturday, Germany moved to 2-0 with an 11-5 win over China while France also remained unbeaten atop the standings after its 7-1 win over Switzerland.

Sweden used a score of two in the tenth end to edge Australia 6-5.

Opening draw sees upset

The biggest surprise of the tournament's first day came from the Czech Republic, who earned a 7-5 victory over Scotland.

Jiri Snitil's foursome had previously beaten David Murdoch's Scottish rink during the European championships, but Saturday's win was the Czech Republic's first at the men's world championship.

"We actually were very nervous before the game," said Snitil. "We set the goal of just don't get too behind too early and don't give him a chance to play their great defensive game. It somehow worked out early in the game and we got lucky a few times."

The Czech Republic scored two in the third end andstole two in the fourth to earn the win in nine ends.

"That was a huge turning point," said Murdoch of the steal in the fourth. "We were looking for a two or three there. He played a couple of great shots. There are going to be a lot of teams that have a lot of losses this week. Hopefully we don't have any more."

The host U.S. rink, led by skip Craig Brown, also got off on the right foot with an 8-6 win over Thomas Ulsrud of Norway.

"It wasn't the cleanest game," said Brown, who made a sparklingdouble raise takeout in the eighth to seize control of the game. "We got a couple of breaks. We also made a couple of really good shots when we needed to. It feels good to have a win."