MOSCOW, April 5 (R-Sport) - Russia's Andrei Drozdov bowed out of the men's world curling championships on Friday with his biggest defeat of the tournament, an 11-3 drubbing by Norway's Thomas Ulsrud.
It was a disappointing end to an otherwise highly promising event that saw the rank outsider Russians register three wins in their first-ever appearance at a major international competition ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Ulsrud broke Drozdov's resolve in the first end with four point-scoring stones, a blow that the Russian couldn't recover from, and the Norwegian required just five more ends to rack up 11 points.
It leaves Russia with a 3-8 record and tenth place in the 12-team standings after the round robin stage, as Japan and Finland prop up the table.
At the sharp end, meanwhile, Scotland's David Murdoch finished top of the standings despite a surprise 10-9 defeat to Finland's Aku Kauste in draw 16.
Murdoch will enter a semifinal with the No. 2 Swedes led by Niklas Edin; while the third- and fourth-placed nations, Denmark and Canada, go into a quarterfinal and that winner will face the loser of the Scotland-Sweden game.
The gold-medal game at the event in Victoria, British Columbia, is Sunday.
