Sweden was leading 154-103.5 IMPS at the end of three of the seven round final in Bermuda Bowl title clash in the in the HCL-42nd World Bridge team championship, here tonight.
Tension was palpable in the Venice Cup for women too where France sitting pretty at one stage found itself just 0.6 IMPs ahead of fighting USA 2 (96.7-96). However in the d'Orsi Trophy for the seniors, things were lot calmer with USA 1 in a commanding lead of 159-50.3 over Sweden.
Sweden (Upmark/Nystrom and Sylvan and Wrang) played a waiting game and indicated its desire to fight with a slam in the fourth board that brought a 12 IMPs swing.
Though Poland too earned a 14 IMPs swing, the complexion began to change and the turning point came in the 12 and 13th board when with two double digit swing in points, Sweden forged ahead.
Poland ( Klukowski/Gawrys and Kalita/ Nowosadzki) made defence errors to compound their problems.
In the match for third and fourth places, USA 2 led England 152.3-138 after three rounds.
In the women's final, France which had a 1.63 points carry over, set up an early lead of 45.7-23 but USA 2 began its climb from there. The Americans took the next round with a nine IMP gain and the third too with another 13 IMP margin. The net result was USA 2 inched ahead where France seemed static.
France will have to do a lot of work to stop the multiple times winner. For the third place, England was 108-75.7 points ahead of Netherlands.
There was no problem in the seniors for the Americans with legends like Bob Hamman and Zia Mahmood in the side. Americans virtually swamped the Swedes from start, winning all three rounds with ease. The team looks like making it a runaway victory unless Sweden has something special up its sleeve tomorrow.
For the third place match, Poland was leading 142-91 over USA 2.
Meanwhile, the semi-finalists were spotted in the Transnational team event with India's lone hope Formidables making an exit. The Indian team lost 113-100 to YBM.
The other three teams are Askgaard, Bulgarian Open and Zimmermann.
