This was: "A very important win! We wanted to get back on the winning track, and although our performance wasn't perfect, we still managed to win, and that's what matters most," Lill said in a post-match interview.

The pair represented Estonia at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February, but lost the opening match of the World Championships to Japan, bouncing back at the weekend to beat both Sweden and New Zealand, placing them fourth in Group A.

Next came Norway, and a close 7–6 win, followed by two defeats, to world number one team Australia, followed by a close 6–5 loss to China on Tuesday evening, leaving the Estonians in joint fifth in Group A.

The French pairing of Stephanie Barbarin and Wilfrid Coulothad suffered their fifth consecutive loss on Tuesday, falling 7–2 to the unstoppable Australia, and had only defeated Denmark prior to the Estonia game. Those two teams were tied for joint bottom place (9th) in Group A going into Wednesday's match.

On the day, Estonians earned one point in the opening end, only for the French to riposte with the same in the second. The same pattern repeated in the third and fourth ends when the Estonian pair first scored two points and the French then matched them with two points as well.

Kaldvee and Lill managed to open up a gap in the scoreline, albeit a small one, in the second half of the match, when they took two points from the fifth end, but then allowed the French to score one in the next. The seventh end brought another point for the Estonians, however, handing them a 6–4 lead overall. While the French had the advantage of the last stone in the final end, it ultimately mattered little, and Kaldvee and Lill secured an 8–4 victory.

Lill noted issues with the stones being used, ahead of the knockout rounds.

"Last night, the stones were processed so that they would have more curl in the playoffs, and that changed the conditions quite noticeably," Lill explained to ERR. "All the teams are still figuring out how much the stones curl and what line to take on a shot. It made things a bit more difficult, but fortunately we adapted, and by the end our shots were on point. We got an important win even though not everything went perfectly," he went on.

"Basically, every time we play, the stones go straighter and their ability to curl decreases," Lill continued. "There's a rule in the competition that the stones must be ground by Tuesday evening at the latest. Right now, you could say the stones curl too much, but that's so the conditions would be as ideal as possible in the playoffs."

Kaldvee meanwhile praised the French team's performance. "They played very well. You can't say they didn't make their shots. We did give them an opportunity that they didn't capitalize on. After that, we stepped up and started playing."

Kaldvee and Lill's closest competitors, Sweden, China, and the Netherlands, all recorded wins too, however. The latter team, in particular, impressed in handing Australia their first defeat.

After the French game, Kaldvee and Lill share fourth place in Group A with Norway and China. They face Denmark, who have only won one match this evening.

This means they are in with a chance of making the knockout round: The top three teams from Group A will go through, with one more match after Denmark to play.

"Yes, the standings aren't great, but we just have to win and then we'll see what happens," Lill said of this. "We have to win and hope a bit that the right teams lose to the right teams. There was a surprise here just now, as Australia lost to the Netherlands, which you wouldn't have expected based on the standings. The stone grinding is causing quirks for all the teams," Kaldvee added.

"The main thing to focus on is that we need to play better ourselves. It doesn't really matter who our opponent is. We need to deliver quality, and then it becomes simple," Lill concluded.

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