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Wiesberger powers through in Belgium
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Wiesberger powers through in Belgium

Bernd Wiesberger continued his incredible comeback to advance to the quarter-finals of the Belgian Knockout at Rinkven International Golf Club.

Bernd Wiesberger

After an opening 76 in Antwerp, the Austrian carded a 64 on day two to sneak into the medal match play stages and won three matches on Saturday as he looks for a second consecutive European Tour win.

He will next face Italian Guido Migliozzi, who needed two extra holes to beat David Law in his last-16 match.

In the other quarter-finals, Ewen Ferguson will face Gavin Green, Matthew Southgate will take on Darius van Driel, and Marcel Siem goes head to head with Grégory Havret.

Wiesberger missed seven months of last season with a wrist injury but if he can come through three more rounds of nine hole stroke play knockout, he will have two wins in seven days and six European Tour titles.

After beating Oliver Fisher by two shots in the last 64 and Oliver Lengden by four shots in the last 32, he faced England's Daniel Gavins for a place in the quarter-finals.

Gavins went left off the tee on the first to surrender a double bogey and Wiesberger established a three shot lead with three to play.

A birdie-birdie-birdie finish from Gavins gave him some hope but Wiesberger's birdie on the par five eighth proved decisive as he played his 27 holes over the day in nine under.

"We got it done," he said. "We had a really strong opponent this afternoon and he kept finding a last putt, it was good to get that over the line.

"It's working good. It was not quite the start to the week we wanted but we found something yesterday and a couple under par steadily today as well. We got our games in nice and tight, it's working very well out there."

Migliozzi and Law made a single birdie each in their nine holes and while they parred the first play-off hole as Law got a nice bounce off a tree, the Scotsman was not so lucky next time around and surrendered a bogey.

Green and home favourite Thomas Detry had made just one bogey each coming into their last 16 match and while they both kept that record intact, Green made three birdies to Detry's two.

The Malaysian holed a long right to lefter on the first to edge ahead but Detry holed from 10 feet on the second and chipped in on the third before Green birdied the fifth and eighth.

Scot Ferguson trailed Nacho Elvira after five holes, with the Spaniard birdieing the first, but Elvira bogeyed the sixth and Ferguson holed a ten footer on the seventh and took advantage of the par five eighth to win by two shots.

Dutchman Van Driel was made to battle for his last 16 victory, birdieing the last from eight feet to beat Dane Jeff Winther by one shot.

Winther made a triple bogey on the first after finding trouble in the trees on both the left and right, but he birdied the fifth and eighth with Van Driel bogeying the fourth.

Southgate bogeyed the first and birdied the second and that was enough to hand the Englishman victory over Hugo Leon at level par, as the Chilean made three birdies and four bogeys.

Frenchman Antoine Rozner also made three birdies and four bogeys in his nine holes, allowing Siem to emerge as a relatively comfortable victor after birdies on the second, third and sixth from the German.

Frenchman Havret and South Africa's Dean Burmester did not make a birdie between them in their last 16 match but Havret's single bogey on the first was followed by eight pars as Burmester made two bogeys and a double.

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