Alex Levy out to defend China Open title

• Alex Levy eyeing defence of his Volvo China Open title
• Hoping for a better performance than T25 last week
• Paul Lawrie to play first European Tour event for three months

The European Tour continues in China this week with Frenchman Alex Levy looking to become the first person to win the Volvo China Open on more than one occasion.

The 24-year-old stormed to a four-shot victory over Tommy Fleetwood at the tournament last year, his first ever on the European Tour, and he followed that up with a second win at the Portugal Masters in October.

And although the event has had a change of venue to Tomson Shanghai Pudong GC this year, Alex Levy, who finished T25 at the Shenzhen International last week, seemed content with his first taste of the course.

“It will be very interesting and I’m looking forward to the experience” – Alex Levy

Speaking to the European Tour, he said: “I’ve never been here before but my first impressions are very good. It’s tough and the greens are very firm, which we don’t get very often on the European Tour. So it will be very interesting and I’m looking forward to the experience.

“Last week I struck the ball very well, but struggled a little with my short game. So if I can hit the ball as well as I did last week and hole a few more putts, I should hopefully be in for a good week.”

Englishman Tommy Fleetwood will be hoping for another strong showing this week after his third-placed finish at the Shenzhen International fired him into the world top 64, with a place at next week’s WGC-Cadillac Match Play in San Francisco the reward.

Paul Lawrie is set to play on the European Tour for the first time in almost three months after making the long-haul flight to Shanghai, while he is joined by Trophee Hassan II winner Richie Ramsay, who performed well over the weekend last week to finish T11.

The other Scots in the field include Scott Jamieson, Craig Lee, Chris Doak and David Drysdale.

Selected groups (local times)

7.50 – Mikko Ilonen, Alex Levy, Hao-Tong Li

Last year’s champion Alex Levy is in good company for his opening two rounds with Chinese sensation Hao-Tong Li looking to go one better this week after agonisingly losing out to Kiradech Aphibarnrat in a play-off last week. The final player in the group is Mikko Ilonen, who has an excellent recent record in the tournament, finishing T8 last year, runner-up in 2013 and T4 in 2010.

12.40 – Nicolas Colsaerts, Tommy Fleetwood, Seunghyuk Kim

Fleetwood finished runner-up to Levy in last year’s tournament and the world No.55 will be buoyed after qualifying for the WGC-Cadillac Match Play next week. He tees off with 2012 European Ryder Cup star Colsaerts, who won the Volvo China Open back in 2011, and Korean Seunghyuk Kim.

12.50 – Robert Karlsson, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Ross Fisher

Aphibarnrat grabbed his second European Tour win at the Shenzhen International last week and he tees off with Ross Fisher, who is currently fourth in the Race to Dubai after four top 30 finishes so far in 2015, and 11-time European Tour winner Karlsson.

Alex Levy to defend China Open title :: Your thoughts

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