Billabong Pro Tahiti
\nStop No 3. of 10 on the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Teahupoo, Taiarapu, Tahiti May 4-14, 2007<\/p>\n
LIVE on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com <\/p>\n
TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Friday, May 11, 2007) \u0096Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour surfers relegated to the first eight heats of Round 2 donned Billabong Pro Tahiti jerseys for the first time in a week today, Friday, May 11, 2007. <\/p>\n
Teahupoo, a wave where wildcards typically do well, proved more suited to Foster\u0092s 45 competitors this afternoon with top-seeded surfers eliminating each of the four event wildcards in the three foot (one metre) waves on offer.Damien Hobgood\u0092s (USA) convincing elimination of local wildcard Hira Teriinatoofa (PYF) earned him a Round 3 berth and the highest heat total of the day \u0096 a 17.36 out of 20.00. <\/p>\n
\u0093I\u0092m just really stoked I made that heat,\u0094 Hobgood said. \u0093I think we sat there for 20-minutes, and since I had a couple of scores, I was praying it would just go flat. I knew going into the heat that it didn\u0092t matter if it was big or small, Hira was going to be competing really well and I was going to have to step it up.\u0094<\/p>\n
Teriinatoofa advanced to the quarterfinals before being beaten by eventual runner-up Fred Patacchia last year. Hobgood finished runner-up to reigning ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) in the 2005 Billabong Pro Tahiti final. <\/p>\n
Current World No. 1 Taj Burrow (AUS) credited today\u0092s smaller surf as an ally in his defeat of Tahitian wildcard Manoa Drollet (PYF) in Heat 1.<\/p>\n
\u0093The bigger it gets the better Manoa gets,\u0094 Burrow said. \u0093He\u0092s lethal when it gets big so I\u0092d have to say I had an advantage at this size. I rode a good little short board I had a mate fly over the other day, so right now, I\u0092d say that was a good decision!\u0094<\/p>\n
Burrow, who is currently tied with Mick Fanning (AUS) as Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour ratings leader, insisted that he is concentrating on his own movements, not Fanning\u0092s. <\/p>\n
Fanning avoided Round 2 sudden death with his victory over Raoni Monteiro (BRA) and Anthony Walsh (HAW) on Day 1.<\/p>\n
\u0093It doesn\u0092t bother me at all that Mick made his first heat and I didn\u0092t because it\u0092s early days in the year and early days in the event and you have to take it heat by heat,\u0094 Burrow said. \u0093I\u0092m thinking about every heat I surf in, not whether Mick gets to skip a round or not \u0096 that really doesn\u0092t phase me much. It wouldn\u0092t bother me if I were to drop down to No. 2 on the ratings because it\u0092s a long year and I\u0092ve got time to get a few keepers, a few results, and I\u0092m planning on winning events. I\u0092m not too concerned about staying No. 1 \u0096 I just want to be No. 1 at the end when it matters.\u0094<\/p>\n
Bede Durbidge (AUS), who sits just behind Fanning and Burrow in the ratings, also advanced today \u0096 his Round 2 clash with Hawaiian Anthony Walsh his first against a wildcard given his recently elevated top-seed status.<\/p>\n
\u0093That was the first time I\u0092ve surfed against a wildcard on the World Tour and Anthony is an amazing barrel rider.\u0094 Durbidge said. \u0093I saw him in the trials and he was unbelievable, I couldn\u0092t believe how well he was surfing. Luckily today was tiny and there were hardly any barrels, but it was still a tough heat. You\u0092ve got to just keep getting through every heat if you want to stay in the Top 5 because you know those guys are going to make their heats \u0096 I just want to keep the momentum going.\u0094<\/p>\n
Victor Ribas (BRA) relegated Phil Macdonald (AUS) to the loser\u0092s round with an outstanding 9.67 wave score \u0096 the highest of the event thus far \u0096 in the final heat of the day. Ribas\u0092 Round 2 win was critical considering he\u0092s started the year off with two last place finishes.<\/p>\n
\u0093I\u0092ve already have two bad results,\u0094 Ribas said. \u0093The count this year is going to drop your two lowest results and I need to do better than 33rds. At this time of the tour, the third contest, I have to get out of the 33rds and get good results and think about the rest of the year. I cannot make mistakes anymore.\u0094<\/p>\n
Ribas, along with Troy Brooks (AUS) were the only two lower-seeded surfers to cause upsets today. Brooks beat Ben Dunn (AUS), who despite being a rookie, came into the Billabong Pro Tahiti World No. 6 after starting the year with semi and quarterfinal finishes.<\/p>\n
Brooks\u0092 heat win today was his first of the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour season.<\/p>\n
\u0093It almost felt like I won a contest there as it\u0092s the first heat of the year I\u0092ve gotten through,\u0094 Brooks said. \u0093I\u0092ve sprouted a few grey hairs there as it was a pretty frustrating heat but I\u0092m happy I\u0092ve come out on top.\u0094 <\/p>\n
Elite tour returnee Mick Campbell (AUS) and fellow Aussies Tom Whitaker and Danny Wills also won their heats today.<\/p>\n
Eight heats of Round 2 remain and a 7:00 call for a possible 7:30 start will be made tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n
ROUND 2 BILLABONG PRO TAHITI RESULTS:
\nHeat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.03 def. Manoa Drollet (PYF) 8.00 Heat 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.17 def. Anthony Walsh (AUS)7.20 Heat 3: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 15.27 def. Bruno Santos (BRA) 3.83 Heat 4: Damien Hobgood (USA) 17.36 def. Hira Teriinatoofa (PYF) 12.00 Heat 5: Daniel Wills 13.83 (AUS) def. Luke Munro (AUS) 9.17 Heat 6: Michael Campbell 16.67 (AUS) def. Neco Padaratz (BRA) 12.77 Heat 7: Troy Brooks (AUS) 10.66 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 9.80 Heat 8: Victor Ribas 16.34 (BRA) def. Phillip Macdonald (AUS) 12.74 <\/p>\n
REMAINING ROUND 2 BILLABONG PRO TAHITI MATCH-UPS:
\nHeat 9: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) vs. Trent Munro (AUS) Heat 10: Frederick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Shaun Cansdell (AUS) Heat 11: Greg Emslie (ZAF) vs. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) Heat 12: Leonardo Neves (BRA) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS) Heat 13: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS) Heat 14: Cory Lopez (USA) vs. Mark Occhilupo (AUS) Heat 15: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Luke Stedman (AUS) Heat 16: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Michael Lowe (AUS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billabong Pro Tahiti Stop No 3. of 10 on the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Teahupoo, Taiarapu, Tahiti May 4-14, 2007 LIVE on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Friday, May 11, 2007) \u0096Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour surfers relegated to the first eight heats of Round 2 donned Billabong Pro Tahiti jerseys for the first time … Continue reading “WILDCARDS ELIMINATED IN BILLABONG PRO TAHITI ROUND 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asp-surfing-news","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}