Taiwan's Yani Tseng and South Korea's Na Yeon Choi have reeled in and overtaken Lorena Ochoa heading into the final round of the Mastercard Classic at Huixquilucan in Mexico.
Tseng, the World No 2, shot a 3-under 69 and Na Yeon Choi a 70 to take their 36-hole totals in this 54-hole event at the Bosque Real Country Club on Saturday to matching 7-under 137s and edge one shot clear of overnight leader Ochoa by a shot.
The Mexican World No 1, who opened with a 65 on Friday, could do no better than a 73 to on Saturday and slipped back into a third placed with seasoned American Pat Hurst.
Ochoa ran into trouble with double bogey at the 435-yard, par-4 8th hole and compounded her problems with a bogey at the tough, par 3 11th.
Birdies at the 12th and 14th righted the Lorena ship, but never by enough to catch the new leaders.
Ochoa has never really thrived at Boscue Real. To date she has failed in all four of her starts here, but her opening 65 as opposed to her 76 last year, has given her heart and she is not yet ready to throw in the towel.
Ochoa said gusting winds had made for difficult conditions, but she remained hopeful that she would make come-back on Sunday.
"The important thing is that I'm still in there," she said, her eyes glinting with determination.
Her opponents won't give ground easily though.
Choi said she was not going to allow herself to be pressurised by the local hero's strongly-supportive galleries
"I just want to play and enjoy and just keep doing it," she said.
Tseng is also looking relatively stress free.
"I had a bet with Lorena for bogey-free, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, I made a bogey on the first hole,'" Tseng joked. "I had seven birdies today, but I also had one four-putt, and that's really bad."
OCHOA TAKES LEAD
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