Britain’s curling medal hopes at the Winter Olympics endured a mixed Sunday as the men’s team beat United States but the women’s team lost out to Switzerland. Pressure remains on both teams, with victories essential in all of their remaining group matches.

Following defeat to Canada on Saturday, skip David Murdoch’s team needed a win against the Americans to keep alive their hopes of reaching the semi-finals. Recovering from 1-0 down, Britain took control in the fifth end, opening up a two point advantage before going on to win 4-2.

Victories over Germany and Norway on Tuesday are now essential for the team, made up entirely of Scots, for them to progress to the last four after earlier losses to Sweden, Switzerland and Canada.

With seven games played, the men are well placed in third position after four wins and three defeats, but find themselves level with Switzerland and Sweden, with Germany also in contention.

The women’s team, also made up entirely of Scots and lead by skip Eve Muirhead, lost 6-10 to Switzerland on Sunday evening and now must rely on other teams to have any chance of emulating Rhona Martin and her team’s gold medal success at the 2002 games.

Muirhead’s mistake in the fourth end left Great Britain trailing by nine points to one before a brief comeback was ended by the Swiss.

As a result, the women’s team now need to defeat Canada and Denmark in their remaining two games, while relying on other teams in their group losing, to progress.

Canada have lost just one so far at their home Olympics and top the standings, while Britain occupy joint sixth place with Germany. Only the top four progress, with Sweden, China, Japan and Switzerland all better placed than Muirhead’s team at present.