HALIFAX -- Canada's Pat Simmons defeated China's Jialiang Zang 7-4 on Sunday for his second straight win at the world men's curling championship at Scotiabank Centre.
Simmons stole a pair in the fifth end and added another deuce in the eighth. China got one back in the ninth before being run out of rocks in the last end.
"We came out stronger today," said Canada third John Morris. "It was a better team game, I felt we were all really high percentages. That's the way we want to play for the rest of the week."
Simmons, who improved to 2-0 after four draws, opened round-robin play Saturday night with an 11-10 victory over John Shuster of the United States.
Simmons and his Calgary-based team of Morris, second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen will take on Sweden's Niklas Edin in the evening draw. Edin won a world title in 2013.
Italy was tied with Canada at 2-0 after Joel Retornaz posted his second straight upset win. He scored six in the ninth end for an 11-5 victory over Edin in the morning draw.
"I'm proud of the team, proud of the way we started this championship," Retornaz said. "It wasn't easy for us because we're kind of an underdog team so it's tough to demonstrate we can play well. But we did.
"We've started with two wins which is always good."
Russia's Evgeny Arkhipov beat Switzerland's Marc Pfister in the other early game. In afternoon play, Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic topped Japan's Yusuke Morozumi 8-6 to leave both teams with 2-1 records.
Shuster defeated defending champion Thomas Ulsrud of Norway 10-7 in an extra end. Finland's Aku Kauste also needed an extra end to get by Scotland's Ewan MacDonald 10-7.
Russia, the U.S., Sweden, Norway and Switzerland were all 1-1. Finland was 1-2 while China (0-2) and Scotland (0-3) remained winless.
The Canadian team is hoping to return to the podium this year after settling for a fourth-place finish last year in Beijing.
