2019 China Open (curling)

The 2019 China Open was held from December 13 to 17 in Tianjin, China.[1] It was the third edition of the event. The winning team on both sides received 40,000 of the total 500,000 (CNY).[2][3] The event was held at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre in preparation for the 2022 Winter Olympics in which the venue hosted the curling events.[1]

2019 China Open
Host city	Tianjin, China
Dates	December 13–17
Men's winner	Team Kim
Curling club	Uiseong CC, Uiseong, South Korea
Skip	Kim Chang-min
Third	Lee Ki-jeong
Second	Kim Hak-kyun
Lead	Lee Ki-bok
Finalist	Korey Dropkin
Women's winner	Team Kovaleva
Curling club	Adamant CC, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Skip	Alina Kovaleva
Third	Maria Komarova
Second	Galina Arsenkina
Lead	Ekaterina Kuzmina
Finalist	Corryn Brown
« 2018

On the men's side, the Korean team of Kim Chang-min, Lee Ki-jeong, Kim Hak-kyun and Lee Ki-bok scored one in an extra end to defeat the United States' Korey Dropkin 7–6 in the final. Team Kim qualified through the round robin as the top seeded team with a 6–1 record, only suffering defeat once to Canada's Braden Calvert rink. Team Calvert, along with the United States' Dropkin and the host China's Zou Qiang also qualified for the playoff round. In the semifinal, the Korean team took an early five point lead on China's Zou and hung on for the 6–3 win. In the other Team Dropkin defeated the Calvert rink by the same score.[4] In the final, Team Kim took an early lead at the halfway point but a steal of two by Dropkin in the sixth gave them their first lead of the game. After getting two in the seventh and then forcing the US team to a single in the eighth, the Korean team got one in the extra end to win the match. Team Kim became the second team to win the China Open following the Kim Ji-sun rink who won the women's event in 2013 China Open. Canada's Team Calvert won the bronze medal by a score of 9–4 over Team Zou. The eight team field was rounded out by the defending champions Russia's Sergey Glukhov, the Netherlands Jaap van Dorp, Sweden's Fredrik Nyman and Switzerland's Andrin Schnider.

On the women's side, Russia's Alina Kovaleva rink repeated as champions for the second year in a row, defeating Canda's Corryn Brown rink 4–3 in a tight championship game. Like in 2018, Team Kovaleva, with Kovaleva, Maria Komarova, Galina Arsenkina and Ekaterina Kuzmina finished first in the round robin, this time with a 6–1 record. Their sole defeat came to Korea's Kim Eun-jung, who also qualified for the playoffs with a 5–2 record. Canada's Brown rink along with Switzerland's Irene Schori both also finished 5–2 to qualify for the playoffs. In the semifinal, Team Kovaleva avenged their sole loss by defeating Team Kim 5–3, while Team Brown stole singles in ends seven and eight to steal a 5–4 victory against Team Schori.[4] In the final, the game remained close all the way through, with Team Kovaleva scoring a single in the final end to secure the title for a second year in a row. Team Schori took third place with a 7–4 win over Team Kim. Germany's Daniela Jentsch, host China's Han Yu, the United States' Madison Bear and Japan's Asuka Kanai rounded out the women's field.