Daniel Ross defeats Jeremy Flores in Round 3 of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay
Australia’s Daniel Ross moved into the fourth round of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay after defeating France’s Jeremy Flores in the opening heat of Round 3 on Saturday, July 23, at the coastline of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.
The third round of the event is a sudden-death round, which means that Flores is no longer in contention for the event title.
The Round 3 battle between Ross and Flores commenced after the event organisers deemed the conditions prevailing at the event site as satisfactory. There were three-to-five foot waves gracing the beach, accompanied by light offshore winds.
As the heat kicked off, the 23-year-old Flores, currently No.11 on Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour rankings, got off to a good start, collecting 4.17 off his first wave to instantly take the lead and put his Australian rival under pressure.
Ross was unable to come up with an adequate response in the early stages of the heat, allowing the French to enjoy an upper hand.
As the heat reached its half stage, the 28-year-old Ross locked his first business-wave and pulled off a combination of impressive tricks to post a 6.43 on the scoreboard to edge past his rival on the scoreboard. Following up with another decent wave, he
added an additional 5.17 points to his account and climbed to a heat-total of 11.60 points.
Flores kept searching for a good score in order to climb over the Australian’s heat-total, but the hunt was unable to get him the necessary score. Earning a 6.00 off his second business-wave, he finished with a heat-total of 10.17 points, consequently forced
to surrender victory to his rival.
The defeat and early exit from the competition must have come as a huge disappointment for Flores and his fans. There were high expectations from the French after his performance at the previous stop of the ASP World Tour, Billabong Rio Pro, in Brazil a
couple of months ago where he had managed to reach the semi-finals.
Ross, currently No. 17 on the ASP World Tour rankings, would be more than happy to survive the heat and move on to the next stage of the competition. He does not have a single elite tour victory to his name and would be hoping to add one to his resume’ in
South Africa.
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