GRAND FORKS – Tiebreakers are the talk of the town at the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship... and with two full days of round-robin play remaining.

France made a stirring comeback to defeat Australia's national men's team 6-4 and force a six-way tie for second place at 4-3. Canada's Kevin Martin is in first at 7-0, thanks to a 9-4 win over Germany's Andy Kapp, leaving the following countries all tied for second: France, Australia, Denmark (a 7-4 winner over Switzerland), Germany, Norway and Scotland.

Aussie veteran Hugh Millikin, with fellow Canadian expatriate Ian Palangio throwing last stones, scored two in the seventh end to break a series of singles and forced French skip Thomas Dufour to one in the eighth. However, the French stole two in the 10th to take a 5-4 lead coming home.

In the final frame, Dufour made a sizzling freeze on last stone to force Palangio to throw a delicate tap. The delivery was a touch wide, and France had stolen again for the win.

"I am very pleased, the guys didn't want to give up the game at the end," said Dufour.

"Everyone was running out of time, it was crazy. I just had a chance to change the strategy and that forced (Australia) to re-think , and that took even more time."

"It was a battle all day," said Australia's Palangio.

"You have to give it to them, they made some absolutely incredible shots in the last two ends."

Six-way ties are not unprecedented in world curling. The 2005 Ford World Men's Championship in Victoria saw six teams tied for the playoffs after the final round-robin draw. 

In the remaining Tuesday night match China's Fengshun Wang moved to 3-4 with an 8-2 victory over Sweden's Anders Kraupp (1-6). Wang is tied with the United States (Craig Brown) while the Czech Republic's Jiri Snitil and Switzerland's Claudio Pescia are at 2-5. 

Numerous television groups are delivering live and tape-delayed action, plus highlight packages, to world curling fans. Eurosport, CBC/CBCSports.ca/Bold (Canada), NBCOlympics.com and WCSN (United States) and CurlTV are all on site in Grand Forks.

Live results, with linescores and shooting percentages, are available via: worldmenscurling2008.com with mirrored scores also posted at: results.worldcurling.org