Kelly Slater defeats Taj Burrow to guarantee Rip Curl Pro Portugal title shot – 2011 ASP World Tour
After surviving a series of intense battles over the course of three days at the beach-break of Supertubos in Peniche, Portugal, America’s Kelly Slater and Australia’s Taj Burrow came face to face in the first Semi-Final of the ninth Association of Surfing
Professionals (ASP) World Tour event of the year, Rip Curl Pro Portugal, on Tuesday, October 18.
The battle between the two titans was expected to be nothing short of epic and the fans were not disappointed with the amount of action and intensity delivered to them during the 30-minute bout. While Burrow remained quite impressive, the show was completely
stolen by Slater through a spectacular performance. The effort allowed him to seal the deal and moved him into the Finals.
The 39-year-old Slater has been in top form during the current season of the ASP World Tour and currently leads the race for the ASP World Title. Despite the emergence of some formidable new generation surfers, the Florida-based surfer has not failed to
assert his dominance in the field and successfully lived up to his repute so far.
His skills and experience allowed him to power through the early rounds of Rip Curl Pro Portugal and eventually made it into the Semi-Finals without sustaining a single scratch. His latest battle brought him face to face with the 33-year-old Burrow, a formidable
opponent in any conditions around the world.
With high-performance three-to-five foot waves gracing the banks of Supertubos, the first Semi-Final got underway. Slater wasted no time in making his move and locked a left-hander in the opening minutes of the heat to pull off a string of impressive tricks,
earning 9.50 points for the effort. Burrow took the challenge head and did exceptionally well to post a 9.80 on the score-board and getting an upper hand over his rival.
As the battle continued, Slater dropped into a huge barrel and compelled the judges to give him a perfect 10 for the spectacular stunt. This took him to an intimidating heat-total of 19.50 points. Burrow suddenly found himself on the back-foot, requiring
a perfect score off his final wave. However, he had to settle for a 7.07 off his final wave, consequently finishing with a heat-total of 16.87 points. As a result, he was forced to step aside and let Slater make his way into the finals.
Commenting on the Semi-Final later, Burrow said, “What do you say after that. It was another one of those situations where we were both getting good waves. I broke my board and was paddling out when he dropped in on that left – first left of the heat – and
I knew it was a 10 straight away. I’m still a bit blown away. It’s been an amazing event though. Some of the best waves I’ve ever surfed.”
Slater was definitely on a roll in Portugal and it seemed unlikely that anybody would be able to bring his domination of the event to a halt.
For updates on the second Semi-Finals of Rip Curl Pro Portugal, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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