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Francesco Laporta and Joachim B. Hansen will resume their battle in Sunday’s final round. 

By Kent Gray
Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen is playing for his second European Tour title inside a year and to extend his season into the final week of the Race to Dubai.

Italy’s Francesco Laporta is already in the DP World Tour Championship but will tee it up in search of something even more precious, a maiden win.

France’s Antoine Rozner is likewise a lock for the season-ender next week and has a chance to pop over to Earth at Jumeirah Golf Estates after successfully defending the penultimate event of the year on Fire.

The final day of the AVIV Dubai Championship isn’t short of intriguing storylines, not with 13 players within five strokes of the -19 lead shared by Hansen and Laporta who will be joined in Sunday’s final threesome by Rozner who is just a shot adrift.

With six birdies and a bogey apiece, Hansen and Laporta both carded 67s on Saturday to go from one shot adrift to one short in front of overnight leader Rozner atop the leaderboard.

Finland’s Kalle Samooja is two shots back on -17 after a round of 68, with Rolex Series winners Min Woo Lee and Tommy Fleetwood sharing fifth position on 16 under par after rounds of 66 and 68 respectively. Lee posted six birdies and eagled the 13th hole to move into contention, while Fleetwood recovered from a two over par front nine with six birdies after the turn. Ryder Cuppers Martin Kaymer (65) and Bernd Wiesberger (68) share seventh place with Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (63) on -15.

Hansen made par on the final hole after first finding the buggy track with his approach shot and then pitching into the greenside bunker. He managed to get up and down from there to stay on -19 and Laporta joined him with a birdie on the last.   

“It was very good from tee to green, the best I’ve ever played from tee to green,” Hansen said who is 85th in the current Race to Dubai rankings so needs to win or finish second to make the top-50 for next week’s DWTC.

“I missed a lot of good chances at the beginning and a few on the back nine. All in all five under is a good score but it could have been a lot better. The lie was alright with that third shot (at the last), but I got a bit too steep on it, but the fourth shot up to the pin was a nice one.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, we’ll see how that’s going to go. Hopefully it will be another beautiful day and we’ll see what happens in the end. I just need to stay patient, I had a lot of chances out there today, so just stay patient and see what happens.”

Laporta is enjoying the tight fight.

“It’s obviously the third round, and we were all in contention so there was more pressure than the other two days, and it was more windy so it was the toughest day of the week,” the 31-year-old world No. 211 said.

“My game is pretty good actually. I didn’t hit the irons very solid like the other two days, so we’re going to work on that this afternoon on the range. But I’ll keep everything, my driver is in good shape and my putting is getting so I’ll try keep that going tomorrow.”

Rozner is happy to remain in the scrap after adding a 69 to his earlier rounds of 65-64.

“Today was tougher, definitely. I did not hit the ball as well as the other days. There were a few mistakes here and there and didn’t score on the easy holes. In the end it is not a disaster. It is three under and I am still in there in the mix and everything is up to tomorrow. I’m in there and that is what I wanted when I started this tournament and I have a chance.”