Yellow jersey holder Filipe Toledo clinched the first spot at Trestles after his round of 16 win against Peruvian wildcard Miguel Tudela.
When Yago Dora defeated world no. six Ethan Ewing, it created a mathematical scenario that ultimately guaranteed a spot for Toledo in the top five.
The world no. was1 clearly emotional when he received the news, “All the hard work, leaving family behind, all the things we have to sacrifice- I’m over the moon.” Spurred on by the announcement, Toledos came out swinging against Connor O’Leary in the quarters. Filipe found the cleanest wave in the heat and smacked three, tight backhand snaps – scoring an 8.60 for his efforts. Toledo put O’Leary in a pretzel and combo’d the Aussie out of the event.
Jack Robinson’s spirited run came to an end in his round of 16 heat against flamboyant, Brazilian wildcard Mateus Herdy. Once again Jack needed a score (7.07) in the final seconds to advance. Jack took off on one of the bigger sets of the day and connected a sequence of solid turns on his backhand. It was up in the air, with judges and commentators split on whether he’d done enough. Ultimately Robbo’ narrowly missed the required score by a mere 0.06, and will head to J-Bay looking to regain the right-point form that saw him win in Mexico last year.
The Quarterfinals were stacked with six Brazilians and two Aussie’s. Connor O’Leary and Callum Robson were the only non-Brazilians left in the comp on the men’s side. O’Leary was combo’d by Toledo, while Callum Robson was up against Yago Dora. Yago is a dangerous force when healthy and he looked at home at Saquarema as he found the best waves in the heat. Yago’s unpredictable arsenal of hacks, snaps and rotations lit up the Brazilian crowd and sent world no.7 Callum Robson packing. Long considered something of a talented underachiever, Yago has a chance to prove he belongs in the upper echelons of pro surfing when he comes up against world no.1 Toledo in the semi’s.
Italo Ferreira has been lurking on the other side of the draw to his rival Filipe. The world no.4 had some tough match-ups today against fellow countrymen Michael Rodrigues in the round of 16 and Miguel Pupo in the Quarter’s. Although both his opponents were also Brazilian, the crowds roared loudest whenever Italo stood up. Ever the crowd-pleasing entertainment machine, Italo landed a gigantic backhand air-reverse for an 8.67 in the round of 16. The dizzying move was enough to send Michael Rodriguez spinning out of the Rio Pro after he’d proven he could still rumble with the best.
It couldn’t have been a closer contest for Italo in the Quarter’s against Miguel Pupo. Italo started the heat poorly, lacked momentum and made a couple of simple mistakes. Meanwhile, Pupo mixed it up with solid rail-work and aggressive hacks. Miguel was in the lead up until the final minutes. However, as we know- you can never count out Italo, who still needed an 8.17 to advance late in the game. So, he decided to go full Italo and land a clean backhand air-reverse with a carve and snap to finish. Italo nailed the exact number (8.17) to tie with Miguel advanced to the semi’s on a countback (having the best wave of the heat). Italo will now compete against Miguel’s younger brother, Samuel on finals day. Samuel has been in top-form throughout the event, picking up the wave of the day (9) for a huge, full rotation air-reverse.
Men’s Semifinal Fixtures
Heat 1
Samuel Pupo
Italo Ferreira
Heat 2
Filipe Toledo
Yago Dora
Men’s Quarterfinal Results
Heat 1
Samuel Pupo – 12.80
Mateus Herdy – 8.83
Heat 2
Italo Ferreira – 13.34 (ADV)
Miguel Pupo – 13.34
Heat 3
Filipe Toledo – 15.10
Connor O’Leary – 8.94
Heat 4
Yago Dora – 14.17
Callum Robson – 7.00
Round of 16
Heat 1
Mateus Herdy – 11.74
Jack Robinson – 11.67
Heat 2
Samuel Pupo – 17.00
Caio Ibelli – 8.50
Heat 3
Italo Ferreira – 14.17
Michael Rodrigues
Heat 4
Miguel Pupo – 15.00
Nat Young – 9.94
Heat 5
Filipe Toledo – 13.56
Miguel Tudela – 9.44
Heat 6
Connor O’Leary – 15.94
Matthew McGillivray – 15.94
Heat 7
Yago Dora – 14.10
Ethan Ewing – 14.00
Heat 8
Callum Robson – 13.40
Jackson Baker – 13.17