Alejo Muniz opens his Rip Curl Pro Portugal skirmish with a win in Round 1
Brazil’s Alejo Muniz walked away with top honours from the second of Round 1 at Rip Curl Pro Portugal, the eighth of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, which got underway at Supertubos in Peniche, Portugal,
on Saturday, October 13, 2012.
Muniz got the win by getting the better of Australia’s Taj Burrow and Brazil’s Jadson Andre, securing his place in the third round while relegating both his rivals into the second round.
The opening day of the latest elite tour event saw clean two-to-three foot waves gracing the primary event site.
The stage seemed to be set for a series of thrilling three-man battles between the top surfers from around the globe.
With the latest edition of the ASP World Tour close to its tail-end, the surfers were well aware of just how important it was to collect a good result to keep the hope of getting their hands on the coveted ASP World Title.
Muniz had not been in the best of forms since the start of the season, making it to the quarter-finals only once in the last 8 months.
However, that was hardly the sort of form that he showed during the second heat of Round 1, which pitted him against Burrow and Andre.
As the battle got underway, Muniz wasted absolutely no way to get down to business and looked his first business-wave to post a 6.50 on the score-board.
After searching for another decent score over the next few minutes, the Brazilian surfer eventually managed to add a 7.83 on the score-board, taking him to a heat-total of 14.33 points.
Burrow, current No.5 on the ASP World Championship Tour rankings, struggled to find an adequate response. Collecting a couple of scores in the five-point range, the Australian surfer finished with a heat-total of 11.36 points.
Andre did not look in a very confident form during the heat. Struggling to adapt to the conditions, the Brazilian talent only managed to earn a 1.33 and 5.40 off his best-two waves, thus finishing with a heat-total of 6.73 points.
Burrow and Andre were going to have to surf again to earn their place in the third round.
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