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England's Matt Wallace is relishing being the man to catch after claiming the halfway lead in the Volvo China Open in Beijing.
Wallace added a second round of 70 to his opening 65 at Topwin Golf and Country Club to finish nine under par, a shot ahead of Australian Jason Scrivener, Spain's Nacho Elvira and American Sihwan Kim.
Defending champion Alexander Levy struggled to a 73 to be two under par, but with the cut falling at one under the entire 69-strong field is separated by just eight shots.
Paul Dunne is four strokes off the lead after he followed Thursday's 71 with a four under par 68 on Friday.
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Starting from the 10th, Dunne made two bogeys and three birdies in his opening nine - with a birdie on the 18th providing some momentum reaching the turn.
And he was able to capitalise on this, with birdies on four, five and eight - his 13th, 14th and 17th - seeing him move up the leaderboard.
Meanwhile Wallace, who led from start to finish to claim his first European Tour title in Portugal last year, said in an interview broadcast by Sky Sports: “It was tough all day.
“The wind stayed up all afternoon and it was swirling as well. I couldn’t get the ball close enough and it was frustrating, but it was pleasing to birdie the last after a bogey on 17 and I’ll take confidence from that into the weekend.
“I’m going to sleep on the lead, which I kind of like doing and we’ll go out tomorrow and try to play as well as possible. I love leading from start to finish if I can, I’ve done it a few times on the Alps Tour. We’ve got a long way to go but I’m playing nice stuff and I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
Scrivener looked like he would lead the way heading into Saturday after firing five birdies and an eagle, but had to settle for a 69 after running up a double-bogey on the ninth, his final hole of the day.
“It was very frustrating,” Scrivener said. “I could feel I was kind of leaking away towards the end. I’m pretty exhausted after being awake since 2am but there are no excuses, it’s just not the best way to finish a round.
“I feel like I have progressed slowly over the last couple of years and I feel like I’m close to winning out here. I’ve just got to put myself in these positions more often.
“I have to work hard and be persistent and hopefully that win will come soon. Eight under is a good position to be in and it’s great to be in the mix for the weekend.”
China Open collated scores:
135 Matt Wallace 65 70
136 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 70 66, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 67 69, Nacho Elvira(Spa)69 67
137 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 69 68, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 68 69, Adrian Otaegui(Spa)68 69, Soomin Lee(Kor)68 69
138 Jason Norris (Aus) 74 64, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 66 72, Jeunghun Wang(Kor)72 66, Jordan Smith 69 69, Scott Jamieson 67 71, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 65 73
139 Ricardo Gouveia (Pt) 71 68, Sam Horsfield 69 70, Paul Dunne 71 68, Joost Luiten (Nl) 70 69, Richard T Lee (Ca) 71 68, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 69 70, Pablo Larrazabal(Spa)70 69
140 Matteo Manassero (Ita) 72 68, Xue-wen Luo (Chn) 72 68, Ashley Chesters 72 68, James Morrison 70 70, Alvaro Quiros(Spa)69 71, Haotong Li(Chn)70 70, Julian Suri(USA)71 69, Daxing Jin(Chn)64 76, Hong-fu Wu(Chn)73 67, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 68 72, Gaganjeet Bhullar(Ind)68 72, Gavin Green (My) 73 67, Scott Vincent (Zim) 66 74
141 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 68 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 68, Lasse Jensen(Den)73 68, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71 70, Clement Sordet(Fra)71 70, Ashun Wu(Chn)70 71, Andrew Dodt(Aus)69 72, Jin-ho Choi(Kor)69 72, Shubhankar Sharma(Ind)69 72, Prom Meesawat(Tha)73 68, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 71, Arjun Atwal(Ind)69 72, Romain Wattel(Fra)72 69, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 69 72, Thorbjorn Olesen(Den)74 67
142 Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha) 68 74, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 70 72, Phachara Khongwatmai(Tha)70 72, Jazz Janewattananond(Tha)74 68, Alexander Levy(Fra)69 73, Micah Lauren Shin(USA)71 71, Chris Hanson 71 71, Khalin H Joshi(Ind)71 71
143 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 70 73, Adilson Da Silva (Br) 70 73, Joakim Lagergren(Swe)73 70, Yan-wei Liu(Chn)70 73, Miguel Tabuena(Phi)71 72, Marcel Siem(Ger)75 68, Kiradech Aphibarnrat(Tha)73 70, Keith Horne(Rsa)69 74, David Lipsky(USA)68 75, Austin Connelly (Ca) 71 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 72 71, Marcus Fraser(Aus)72 71
Missed cut:
144 Wei-Chih Lu (Tha) 71 73, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 71 73, Matthieu Pavon(Fra)71 73, Shaun Norris(Rsa)71 73, Blake Snyder(USA)69 75, Aaron Rai 73 71, Lee Slattery 73 71, Oliver Fisher 71 73, Xinyang Li(Chn)71 73, Seung-su Han(USA)74 70, Dean Burmester(Rsa)71 73, Yuxin Lin (a)(Chn)68 76, Wade Ormsby(Aus)69 75, Thomas Detry(Bel)71 73, Hyun-woo null Ryu(Kor)71 73
145 Richard Bland 73 72, Bowen Xiao (Chn) 72 73, Rattanon Wannasrichan(Tha)72 73, Callum Shinkwin 71 74, Lian-Wei Zhang(Chn)73 72, Bradley Neil 71 74, Adam Bland(Aus)71 74, Nicholas Fung (My) 69 76, Marc Warren 76 69, Rak hyun Cho(Kor)74 71, Wen-yi Huang(Chn)72 73
146 Yi Cao (Chn) 71 75, Zi-hao Chen (Chn) 75 71, Shih-Chang Chan (Tp) 75 71, Nicolas Colsaerts(Bel)74 72, Brandon Stone(Rsa)72 74, Zi-han She(Chn)73 73, Wei-Huang Wu(Chn)71 75, Johannes Veerman(USA)68 78, Gregory Bourdy(Fra)72 74, Bernd Wiesberger (At) 72 74, Gregory Havret(Fra)73 73
147 Daniel Brooks 72 75, Jin Zhang (Chn) 72 75, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 71 76, Renato Paratore (Ita) 74 73, Paul Peterson(USA)72 75, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 72 75, Hui-lin Zhang(Chn)74 73, Scott Hend(Aus)77 70, Erik Van Rooyen(Rsa)72 75
148 Daniel Im(USA)76 72, Sam Brazel(Aus)70 78, Ajeetesh Sandhu(Ind)72 76
149 Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 77, Yi-nong Yang (Chn) 77 72, Benjamin Hebert(Fra)75 74, Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn) 70 79, Ding-gen Chen(Chn)74 75, Thongchai Jaidee(Tha)72 77
150 S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 75 75, Xu Wang (Chn) 76 74, Changping Chen(Chn)76 74, Xiaoli Wang(Chn)79 71, Poom Saksansin(Tha)75 75
151 David Gleeson (Aus) 75 76, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 75 76, Xiaozhong Chen(Chn)75 76
152 Daniel Nisbet(Aus)77 75
153 Ze-yu He (Chn) 76 77, Tu-xuan Wu (Chn) 76 77, Shiyu Fan (Chn) 78 75, Chengyao Ma(Chn)77 76, Shao-cai He(Chn)79 74, Hai-Meng Chao(Chn)72 81, Dong Su(Chn)79 74
154 John Michael O'Toole (USA) 72 82, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 77 77, Jian-feng Ye(Chn)79 75, Lucas Herbert(Aus)75 79
155 Xuefeng Yao (Chn) 75 80
156 Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 79 77, Zheng Ouyang (Chn) 79 77
157 Zhang-Wen Tong (Chn) 75 82
158 Dongyu Wang (Chn) 79 79, Zehao Liu (Chn) 76 82, Guo-wu Zhou (Chn) 75 83
159 Zeming He (Chn) 74 85, Peicheng Chen (a) (Chn) 80 79
161 Guxin Chen (a) (Chn) 83 78
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