Both teams have a record of six wins and no losses at the top of the standings following the first four days of action.

South Korea’s first win of the day came automatically as they were scheduled to play Scotland, who are forfeiting every match after pulling out of the tournament due to having numerous COVID-19 cases.

This meant South Korea did not take to the ice until the evening session when they beat Italy 7-4.

Kim Eun-jung’s team blanked the opening end so that they could capitalise on the last-stone advantage in the second.

Very little separated the two sides in the next three ends as they both each took single points from the ends where they held the hammer.

In the fifth, South Korea took two more points to produce the first steal of the match.

Italian skip Stefania Constantini was too heavy on her last stone, causing her opponents to reap the rewards of a 4-1 advantage at the half-time break.

After Italy scored a point in the sixth end, Giulia Zardini Lacedelli replaced Veronica Zappone as the lead.

South Korea’s accurate take-out performance in the eighth end meant they took three points to extend the scoreline to 7-3.

For the eighth end, it was South Korea’s turn to alternate their line-up and they brought in Kim Yeong-mi to play the lead stones.

Italy conceded defeat after the ninth end as they took just a point.

South Korean skipper Eun-jung spoke about how her team is looking to bounce back from their disappointing performance at Beijing 2022 where they finished eighth in the standings.

"Even though it was a tight game in the beginning, I feel that we controlled the game," she said.

"We were very disappointed with how we performed at the Olympics, so rather than focusing on ice training, we mostly put our efforts into communicating with each other and working out what our future plans would be and overcoming the disappointment."

Eun-jung added: "Our first goal here is to make it to the semi-finals and we’ll see what happens from there."

Maintaining pace with the resurgent South Korea are Switzerland, who beat Norway 8-5.

The Swiss first stormed out to a 3-1 lead after three ends but were pegged back in the fourth.

Norway’s fourth player Kristin Skaslien performed a hit on a Swiss stone to record three points to take the lead.

Switzerland took a 6-5 advantage by the ninth end, and they confirmed their sixth consecutive win when fourth player Alina Pätz played a hit and stay to add two more points to the score.

Sweden currently sits third in the standings with six wins and one loss after beating Italy 6-2 and later Japan 8-4.

Canada, Denmark, and the United States are all together below, with each team having a record of four wins and two losses.

Canada defeated Japan 10-4 while Denmark beat Turkey 11-10.

The Danes also overcame the Czech Republic in an extra end to win 8-6.

The United States beat Germany 8-7 in a tense affair.

Japan’s two losses mean they have dropped to seventh with four wins and three defeats.

Germany and Norway still have hopes of making the playoffs, despite having records of three wins and four losses.

Norway won 10-5 against Turkey and Germany’s win of the day was automatic as they were due to play Scotland.

The Czech Republic trail below on one win and six defeats, the same record as Italy.

Turkey are yet to record a victory following six consecutive defeats.