Russian Open: Australian rookie Marcus Fraser continued his rich vein of form by breaking the Moscow Country Club course record by a stroke with a seven-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead in the Russian Open yesterday.

The 25-year-old individual winner in last year's Eisenhower Trophy, playing his first season in Europe, has already won twice on the Challenge Tour and is threatening to make it three times in nine weeks after surging to 11-under-par 133.

His faultless card with seven birdies took him a stroke clear of one of his adversaries last year in the Eisenhower Trophy, Britain's Jamie Elson, who equalled Fraser's 65 late in the day to move into second place alongside fellow Briton David Ryles and Austrian Martin Wiegele on 134.

Wins in the Danish and Finnish Opens in his first year on the Challenge Tour, with which this event is co-sanctioned, have seen Fraser climb to fourth on the rankings and well within sight of qualifying for a main tour card next year already.

Co-second placed Wiegele has a chance of winning in his first European Tour event and Ryles his third, while Elson is aiming to follow in the footsteps of 2001 Walker Cup team-mates Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell.

Damien McGrane ended the day five shots off the lead after a second round 68 left him on six-under-par 138. The Wexford man was the only one of the four Irish entrants playing in Moscow to survive into the weekend. Gary Cullen (75 for 245), Stephen Browne (76 for 152), and Eamonn Brady (78 for 155) were all outside the 142 cut-off mark.

Teenager Dimitry Vinogradov missed out on being the first Russian to make a cut in an official European Tour event after the 17-year-old amateur dropped two late shots for a 72 to total 14.