Brett Simpson and Raoni Monteiro survive Round 5 of Billabong Pro Tahiti – 2011 ASP World Tour
The line-up for the Billabong Pro Tahiti’s quarter-finals was completed with the conclusion of the third and fourth heat of Round 5 that went down on Sunday, August 28, at Teahupo’o in Taiarapu, Tahiti.
Brett Simpson clinched a comfortable win over Hawaii’s Fredrick Patacchia in the third heat to secure his place in the quarter-final, kicking out his rival from the competition in the process.
The fourth heat saw Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro edge past Australia’s Chris Davidson after a close contest to guarantee his place in the quarter-finals, consequently removing his opponent from the contention for the event title.
The 26-year-old Simpson has surfed impressively in the previous round, but was unable to get past South Africa’s Travis Logie, which had sent him to the relegation Round 5. Pitted against Patacchia in a battle for the quarter-final spot, the American needed
to come up with his A-game if he wished to stay alive in the race for the event title.
As the third heat got underway, Simpson found the waves eluding him. However, a determined hunt eventually allowed him to lock a couple of waves to collect 9.33 and 8.00, finishing with a heat-total of 17.33 points.
Patacchia had much better luck with the number of waves heading in his direction, but he failed to capitalise on the advantage and only managed to collect a couple of 7s, finishing with a heat-total of 14.00 points. Consequently, he was forced to step aside
and watch his American rival make his way into the quarter-finals.
The Round 5 bout between Monteiro and Davidson turned out to be real intense. The Brazilian had to exhibit a lot of patience as he hunted for good waves, eventually locking two juicy ones. Scoring 7.50 points off the first one, he immediately followed it
up with an impressive 8.00-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 15.50 points.
Davidson more-or-less stayed at par with his rival’s performance, but failed to see himself through after scoring 6.77 points off his first wave and adding an additional 8.37 points to his account in the later stages, finishing with a heat-total of 15.14
points. The 0.36-point deficit sealed the fate of the contest in Monteiro’s favour, sending him to the next stage of the competition while removing Davidson from the contention for the event-title.
The event-organisers called it a day after the conclusion of the fourth heat due to fading light, scheduling the start of the quarter-finals to the next competition day.
For updates on the quarter-finals of Billabong Pro Tahiti, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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