Top 5 female surfers of 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour – Part 2
2. Sally Fitzgibbons
The 20-year-old Australian is surfing’s fastest rising star. While competing in her first Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour in 2009, Fitzgibbons wasted no time in asserting herself as a strong contender for the title, eventually
finishing in Top-5 at the end of the season. However, she returned back the next year looking even more threatening than before and finished the season as runner-up.
The latest season was no different for her either and once again she maintained a consistent form throughout the season to follow one brilliant performance with another. However, for a second consecutive year, the World title barely eluded her.
Finishing in second place while pitted against the most talented female surfers from all across the world is no small feat and Fitzgibbons managed to do just that for a second time in a row this year. The 2011 season had been excellent for her, keeping her
in contention for the World title until the very end.
The young Australian kicked off the latest season of ASP World Tour with the Roxy Pro in her own backyard, Australia. The opening rounds of the competition turned out to be a one-man show for her and she comfortably made her way through the initial rounds
and the quarter-finals to earn her place in the semi-finals. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to best Hawaii’s rampaging Carissa Moore in the semi-finals and got eliminated.
The second stop on the ASP Women’s World Tour, Rip Curl Women’s Pro, at Bells beach in Australia featured a similar start for Fitzgibbons. She made quick work of her competition in the initial rounds and managed to pass through the quarter-finals as well
as the semi-final unscratched. Once again, she found herself facing Moore at such a crucial stage. However, this time the Australian got the better of her Hawaiian rival and prevailed in the final to clinch her first event victory of the season.
Subaru Pro TSB Bank Women’s Surf Festival, the third event of the season, in Australia saw Fitzgibbons bring the confidence gained from the previous event with her to the beach and continued her winning momentum going. Drilling through the early rounds and
crucial quarter-final and semi-final stage, she stepped into the final to face someone who seemed to be taking the role of her arch rival, Moore. The battle between the two ladies turned out to be intense, but in the end it was the Australian who walked away
with top honours.
The New Zealand stop of the Tour started off great for the Australian sensation as she breezed through the first five rounds of the competition. She made it through the quarter-final as well, but conceded victory to Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich in the semi-finals.
Heading to Brazil for the Billabong Rio Pro, Fitzgibbons continued to assert her excellent form and seemed unstoppable as he down one opponent after another to make her way through to the finals to stand face to face with Moore for the third time in the
season. This time, the Hawaiian emerged triumphant from an intense battle, leaving Fitzgibbons to settle for second place.
By now, the Australian prodigy was the only threat to the ASP Women’s World title besides Moore. A lot depended on the outcome of the Roxy Pro in France. Fitzgibbons needed to win the event and hope that Moore did not make it in the final three at the event
in order to keep her chances alive. As it turned out, not only did Fitzgibbons fail to win the event, losing to compatriot Stephanie Gilmore in the semi-finals, her arch rival also made it into the finals, sealing the fate of the 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour.
Despite missing out on an opportunity to earn her first World title, Fitzgibbons brought her A-game to the final stop of the season in America, US Open of surfing. She showed absolutely no mercy to her opponents as she took them down one by one to eventually
clinch the event title by defeating America’s Lakey Peterson.
This may have been yet another season when Fitzgibbons barely missing out on the title, but expectations from the Australian sensation have gone sky high in the coming years.
To be continued in Part 3.
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