Dusty Payne and Kelly Slater advance to 2011 Nike US Open of Surfing semi-finals
After a series of exciting battles, the latest edition of Nike US Open of Surfing came down to the crucial quarter-final stage on Saturday, August 7, at the Huntington Beach Pier, California.
The first quarter-final saw Hawaii’s Dusty Payne continue his winning momentum by taking down America’s Tanner Gudauskas to go through to the semi-finals, bringing the event-title pursuit of his rival to a premature end.
America’s legendary Kelly Slater walked away victorious from an intense second-quarter battle against the threatening Australian force Taj Burrow, to guarantee his place in the semi-finals and removing his rival from the contention for the event title.
The final day of the event was once again graced with clean two-to-four foot waves, making the day look promising in terms of thrilling contests between the top-eight surfers.
The first quarter-final pitted the 22-year-old Payne against the talented 25-year-old Gudauskas. While the Hawaiian had remained rather consistent throughout the event, the latter had experienced ups and downs, leaving him somewhat short of confidence.
As the battle kicked off, Payne wasted no time in taking control of the heat and putting his rival under pressure. Just a few minutes into the heat, the Hawaiian locked a wave to score 6.83 points off it and immediately followed it up with an impressive
7.10-point wave to move to a heat-total of 13.93 points.
Gudauskas tried to rise up to the challenge, but his effort turned out to be in vain as he only managed to earn 5.33 and 4.77 points off his top-two waves, finishing with a heat-total of 10.10 points. His failure to come up with an adequate response sent
Payne through to the semi-finals.
The second quarter-final featured a battle between the titans, namely the 39-year-old Slater and 33-year-old Burrow. If anyone was hoping for their face-off to be spectacular, they surely got their wish fulfilled, as the showdown turned out to be electrifying.
The home advantage, local knowledge of the waves and arguably the best skills in the sport were indeed tilting the scales in Slater’s favour. However, Burrow was definitely not someone who could be undermined, as he was not short on skills and talent either
and was perfectly capable of defying the odds that slightly favoured his American rival.
As the battle kicked off, Burrow drew first blood, opening his account with a 7.17-point wave. However, Slater soon responded with a 7.10-point wave to keep the pressure from mounting. He immediately followed it up with another business-wave, unleashing
a flurry of exquisite maneuvers to earn a decisive single-wave score of 8.40 and moved to a heat-total of 15.50 points.
Late into the heat, Burrow made a final desperate effort to jump past Slater, locking a wave to show off some of his skills, but only managed to earn 8.10 points for the effort. Finishing with a heat total of 15.27 points, the Australian helplessly watched
Slater advance to the semi-finals with a 0.23-point victory.
Slater would be competing against South Africa’s Dusty Payne in the semi-final for a shot at the event title.
For more updates on the 2011 Nike US Open of Surfing quarter-finals, stay tuned to bettor.com
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