Patrick Gudauskas and Jordy Smith advance to Mr. Price Pro Ballito semifinals
After featuring a series of adrenaline-pumping four-man, three-man and two-man battles over the course of five days, Mr. Price Pro Ballito kicked off its final day with the crucial quarter-finals on Saturday, July 9th, at Surfers Beach in Ballito,
South Africa.
The first quarter-final saw America’s Patrick Gudauskas assert his dominance over Brazil’s Junior Faria to successfully make it through to the semi-finals, while putting an end to the Brazilian surfer’s title campaign.
The defending champion and South Africa’s last hope, Jordy Smith continued to exhibit his excellent form during the second quarter-final to remove Brazil’s Jesse Mendes from the competition and move one step closer to the title.
The sixth day of the event saw the Surfers Beach graced by beautiful surfing conditions, with around eight-to-ten foot waves on offer and slight onshore winds. These were unarguably some of the best conditions that the surfers had surfed in for a long time.
The first quarter-final pitted America’s Gudauskas and Brazil’s Faria against each other in a battle for the coveted semi-final spot. Both the surfers had performed exceptionally well over the last five days, so their face-off was expected to be intense.
However, the 25-year-old American soon made the difference between his and his rivals’ form evident. During the heat, he picked 7.83 points off a wave early in the battle and locked another wave soon to pull off a string of excellent tricks, getting a near-perfect
9.27 for the effort. His heat-total of 17.10 was bound to test even the best of surfers to the maximum, regardless of the surfing conditions.
Faria was unable to come up with an adequate response to his rivals’ rampage and only managed to collect a 6.33 and 7.43 off his two best waves to finish with a heat-total of 13.76, consequently surrendering victory to Gudauskas.
South Africa’s Smith and Brazil’s Mendes had a much more intense battle in the second quarter-final. The local surfer kicked things off with a 8.67-point wave and added a 5.40 to his account later in the heat to finish with a two-wave total of 14.07 points.
Mendes got off to a disappointing start, scoring 2.73 points off his first wave, but then sent the entire crowd and judges in awe by disappearing in a huge barrel and reappearing after a few seconds. The judges could not help but give the spectacular stunt
a perfect 10, moving the Brazilian to a heat-total of 12.73. However, he lost the semi-final spot to Smith by 1.34 points.
For more updates on Mr. Price Pro Ballito quarter-finals, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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