Raoni Monteiro defeats Mick Fanning in third round of Billabong Rio Pro
Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro managed to get an unexpected win over Australia’s Mick Fanning in the 12th heat of the third round of Men’s Billabong Rio Pro that went down on Thursday, May 19th, at the beach-break of Barra Da Tijuca in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil.
With the top surfers of the world competing in the third stop of the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s World Tour, there was hardly anyone who could be considered a weak competitor. Still, someone like Fanning, a two-time ASP World Champion,
is always counted among the favourites to win any event.
Making a strong impact on the opening day of Men’s Billabong Rio Pro at the beach-break of Arpoador, Fanning not only lived up to the expectations, he did justice to his reputation by earning a convincing victory over Brazil’s Simao Romao and Hawaii’s Dusty
Payne.
Brazil’s Monteiro, on the other hand, was still relatively unknown when compared to the top seeds of ASP and was yet to make his presence felt in the current season. He seemed promising when competing in the first round of Billabong Rio Pro and had further
asserted his good form by beating Portugal’s Tiago Pires in the second round to advance further.
The meeting between Fanning and Monteiro on Thursday was not expected to result in one of the biggest upsets of the day. Though the Brazilian had an advantage of possessing local knowledge of the waves and conditions at Barra Da Tijuca, along with the support
of passionate Brazilian fans behind, there was hardly anyone who expected the advantage to play such a substantial role in deciding the fate of the heat.
Monteiro exhibited impressive manoeuvres during the heat to end up with a total score of 14.84 after his two waves. Fanning, on the other hand, only managed to score 13.73 in response. The 29-year-old Australian’s poor effort resulted in the Brazilian surfer
walking away with victory.
Monteiro will be feeling quite confident after a successful heat against one of the best surfers in the world as he makes his way to the fourth round to compete for a place in the quarter-finals. It will be interesting to see if he manages to come up with
the same level of surfing in the upcoming round. One cannot count Fanning out from the favourites for Men’s Billabong Rio Pro yet either, as he is perfectly capable of making a strong comeback.
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