China and the United States will play a tie-breaker to determine the fourth men's semifinalist at the Winter Games curling today.
Both teams won their final two games at the Maniototo Ice Rink at Naseby to finish fourth equal after the round-robin competition.
China, the pre-event favourite to win the gold medal, has already qualified for next year's Winter Olympics in Canada and was not expected to struggle in the round-robin phase.
But the team has struggled and lost to Japan 8-7, Korea 5-4 and Canada 7-6 in the first five rounds.
Needing wins in the last two rounds to remain alive, it beat New Zealand 8-4 in round six and Australia 6-4 in the final round yesterday.
The Australian clash was tight, with China leading narrowly 3-2 after five ends.
A two on the seventh end gave China a two-point cushion at 5-3 before the last two ends.
China led 5-4 before the last end and had the advantage of the last rock, which it used to add a point to win the game.
Daniel Rafael, the China coach, wanted his team to face pressure curling before the Olympics, and he has got his wish.
China beat the US 8-4 in the first round and will be favoured to win this morning's tie-breaker.
But it cannot take a semifinal spot for granted because the US has finished strongly and beat the Czech Republic 8-6 and Korea 9-5 in the last two rounds.
Korea, the front-runner for the first five rounds, slipped off the pace in the last two days to finish second-equal with Australia in the men's round-robin.
The teams will face each other in the semifinals.
Korea was beaten by top qualifier Japan 8-4 in round six and by the US in a surprise result yesterday.
The game was even at 4-4 after five of the nine ends but the US nailed the win by scoring a two on the seventh end and three on the ninth.
The final round-robin placings were: Japan, Korea and Australia, China and the US, New Zealand, Czech Republic and Canada.
It was a disappointing performance by the New Zealand team, which won just two games on its home patch, against the Czech Republic 7-6 and Canada 6-5.
New Zealand advanced to the women's semifinals when it beat Australia 10-5 to gain its second win over its transtasman opponent.
China finished top qualifier with a commanding 12-2 win over Japan.
China led 8-0 after three ends and added a three and a one on the fifth and sixth ends to finish the game.
In today's semifinals, China will play New Zealand and Japan will face Korea.
The men's tie-breaker between China and the US starts at 8am.
The semifinals will start at 11.45pm and 3pm.
