Asia hold narrow lead

The battle for the Royal Trophy was set to go to the wire as Asia held a slender advantage midway through the final day's singles as they bid for second successive win over Europe.

Colin Montgomerie's team are looking to reclaim the trophy and make a positive start to the Ryder Cup year and began the day with a one-point advantage having fought back in four-balls to move into a 4- 3 lead.

That means Asia needed to come out on top in five of the eight matches and they held the lead in four games at the halfway stage. After an hour of play only Simon Dyson was leading in his match for the Europeans.

The York player was the first to tee off against South Korean Charlie Wi and moved ahead with birdies on the par-five second and sixth while Wi had picked up a shot on the fourth.

Dyson then failed to sink a birdie putt from four feet on the floating island green - the Amata Spring Country Club's signature eighth - while Wi made a difficult birdie on the same hole to draw level.

But Wi then shot a double bogey at the ninth and, though Dyson had found the bunker from the tee, he recovered with a bogey putt to hold the lead at the turn.

Montgomerie was one-down to Liang Wen-chong midway through his round, with the Scot having holed a putt from 10 feet to halve the ninth and ensure he did not fall further behind.

Swede Peter Hanson was two up after seven holes against Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa while the matches between Spaniard Pablo Martin and Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng and Dane Soren Kjeldsen and India's Gaganjeet Bhullar were all square through eight and six holes respectively.

Jeev Milkha Singh of India was on course for a comfortable win over Swede Robert Karlsson having birdied three successive holes from the first.

Karlsson bogeyed the par-three fourth and though he recovered with a birdie on sixth, Singh picked up a shot on the next hole to go four up through seven. Japan's Koumei Oda was two up through nine against Alexander Noren of Sweden at the turn while compatriot Henrik Stenson was also trailing in his game with Thongchai Jaidee with the Thai two up after five holes.