Junior Faria and Jordy Smith advance to Mr. Price Pro Ballito quarter-finals
After treating the fans to thrilling surfing action during Round 1-3, Mr. Price Pro Ballito kicked off with the first and second heat of no-elimination Round of 12 (Round 4) on Friday, July 8th, at the Surfers Beach in Ballito, South Africa.
Brazil’s Junior Faria continued to assert his excellent form by collecting yet another victory and advancing directly to the quarter-finals. America’s Patrick Gudauskas and Brazil’s Jesse Mendes finished in second and third position respectively, consequently
moving to the fifth round to participate in a battle for survival.
The second heat saw South Africa’s Jordy Smith continue his winning momentum and securing a place in the quarter-finals, while his compatriot Shaun Joubert and Australia’s Kieren Perrow rounded out the second and third positions respectively to head to Round
5.
Even on the fifth day of the contest, mother-nature continued to bless the primary event site with huge eight-foot waves. Though there were offshore winds prevailing at the beach-break, they were too weak to make any significant impact on the conditions.
Brazil’s Faria got off to an excellent start, moving into a rare double barrel to open his account with an outstanding score of 9.33 and moving way ahead of everyone on the scoreboard. He later added another 3.50 points to his account to finish with a heat-total
of 12.83. The score eventually carried him off to victory and hence, the quarter-finals.
Talking to a reporter after his heat, Faria said, “It’s really heavy, you can’t just choose any wave to get scores because you’re going to take a long time to come back, even with the skis. It’s a matter of finding one good wave in thirty minutes.”
Gudauskas put up a commendable fight, scoring 8.17 off his first wave and 3.27 points off his second to finish with a two-wave total of 11.44. However, he was forced into the fifth round after finishing 1.39 points short of victory.
Mendes took third place after looking completely out of rhythm during the heat, scoring only 3.67 and 1.53 off his two best waves.
The defending champion and Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World No. 5, Smith remained the highlight of the second heat. Collecting 5.17 points off a wave early in the heat and soon clinching the highest single-wave score of the day, 9.80, to
finish with a winning heat-total of 14.97 points.
During his post-heat interview, Smith said, “We weren’t really battling each other out there, we were battling the ocean trying to find those perfect waves. It is definitely difficult but when you get a good one, it is worth it. I’m stoked to advance straight
into the quarterfinals but I wouldn’t have minded getting a few more 9.8’s either.”
Joubert and Perrow remained quite unimpressive during the three-man battle, finishing with a two-wave total of 5.03 and 4.40 respectively and moving into Round 5 in order to stay alive in the competition.
For updates on Round 4 of Mr. Price Pro Ballito, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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