Eve Muirhead admitted her British rink could have easily been toasting an opening win at the Winter Olympics instead of their Swedish opponents.
Muirhead saw Swedish skip Margaretha Sigfridsson claim another victory over her as their 2013 European Championship final conquerors claimed a 6-4 victory.
Britain fell 3-0 behind after three ends, and despite pulling it back to 3-3 at the conclusion of the sixth, Sigfridsson did enough to open her campaign with a win.
And Muirhead, the reigning world champion, insisted there was a fine line between winning and losing that first match of the Games in Sochi.
“It is always disappointing to lose the first match. It was always going to be a tough one anyway, playing the European champions and world runners-up,” said Muirhead.
“They are one of the favourites but the game could have gone either way. We got off to a bit of a slow start, managed to claw it back to all square but they played a fantastic shot in the seventh end that gave them that step ahead.
“I think when you go down a few it is always going to be a bit frustrating but I think we played well in the middle half of the game and if we can take that to the next game – and the next game is a new one – we will definitely step it up.”
© Sportsbeat 2014