Adam Melling and Heitor Alves prevail in Round 2 of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay
The ninth and tenth heat of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay’s Round 2 went down at the coastline of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa on Thursday morning, July 21st.
Australia’s Adam Melling defeated America’s Brett Simpson in the ninth heat to go through to the third round, while bringing the event-title pursuit of his rival to a premature end.
The tenth heat saw Brazil’s Heitor Alves create the biggest upset of the day by downing and eliminating America’s Patrick Gudauskas from the competition to advance to the next round.
The 26-year-old Melling, who finished as runner-up in last year’s event, managed to bounce back from a Round 1 defeat by coming up with an impressive Round 2 performance and prevailing over the 26-year-old American, Simpson.
Both surfers fought hard during the battle, determined to stay alive in the event. As the heat kicked off, the Australian surfer got down to business right away and locked a juicy wave to throw a string of impressive tricks, adding an 8.27 to his account.
His second business-wave came in the later stages of the heat, earning him a 5.73 to take him to a two-wave total of 14.00 points.
Simpson got off to a slow start and it took him a series of waves to eventually reach one that proved to be relatively productive, earning him 5.93 points. He immediately followed it up with a 5.87-point wave to move to a heat-total of 11.80 points. A deficit
of 2.20 points forced him to surrender victory to his Australian rival.
While talking to a reporter after the heat, Melling, currently No. 24 in ASP World Title rankings, said, “With the way the ASP World Rankings now this becomes an important event for me. I need a big result here to keep my place up on the rankings and that’s
certainly the goal. I’m happy with the way I surfed today and hope to continue throughout the rest of the event.”
The tenth heat pitted the 29-year-old Brazilian Alves against America’s Gudauskas. Both surfers had failed to impress in the first round and were standing on the edge as a result.
Despite sitting lower than Alves on the ASP World Title rankings, Gudauskas seemed to be the stronger of the two rivals after taking his exceptional performance at the recently concluded ASP World Prime event, Mr. Price Pro Ballito, in South Africa into
account.
However, the result of the Round 2 heat turned out to be in the Brazilian’s favour. As the heat kicked off, Gudauskas drew first blood, scoring a 6.17 off his first wave, to move into the lead and continued to enjoy the upper hand for most part of the heat.
However, a late charge by Alves flipped the battle in his favour. In the final minutes of the battle, the Brazilian locked a couple of good waves to collect 6.97 and 7.93 off them and moved to a heat-total of 14.90 points.
Despite coming up with an impressive response, posting 7.67 off his last wave, Gudauskas was still unable to edge past his rival’s heat-total. He finished with a two-wave total of 13.84 points, consequently surrendering victory to Alves.
Alves appreciated the remarkable fight put up by his American rival, saying, “Pat (Gudauskas) is a very good surfer. I knew I had to take advantage of every wave and section I got. It can be a tough wave on your backhand but today’s conditions were good
for it.”
By defeating Gudauskas, Alves confirmed his place in Round 3, where he would be facing Australia’s Adrian Buchan.
For more updates on Round 2 of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay, stay tuned to bettor.com
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