Miguel Pupo and Kelly Slater step into the semi-finals at Nike US Open of Surfing

Brazil’s Miguel Pupo and America’s Kelly Slater advanced to the semi-finals at the Nike US Open of Surfing, the latest Prime event on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) calendar, after putting on impressive performances to claim victory in their respective quarter-finals that went down at Huntington Beach in California, America, on August 5.

Pupo got the better of his fellow countryperson Filipe Toledo in the first Quarter-final to secure his place in the next stage of the competition while sending his rival packing.

The second Quarter-final saw America’s Dane Reynolds go down in his battle against the legendary Slater, consequently finding his pursuit of the event title conclude prematurely while sending his rival into the semi-final stage.

With the day expected to see the event to its end, a huge crowd had shown up at the primary event site to watch the surfing heavy-weights in action as the competition field continued to narrow down.

The first Quarter-final pitted Pupo and Toledo against each other in a one-on-one battle for survival. The two Brazilians had adjusted exceptionally well to the conditions prevailing at Huntington Beach over the last few days and had everyone wondering who held a better chance of making it through into the semi-finals.

However, it did not take long of Pupo to establish his form as superior over his compatriots. He hardly wasted any time to get down to business, locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat to post a 9.00 on the score-board. After a lengthy and determined effort, he managed to add an additional 5.57 points to his account, thus reaching a heat-total of 14.57 points.

Toledo seemed out of rhythm right from the beginning of the battle and failed to pull himself together. Scoring a 5.83 and 3.00 off his best-two waves, the Brazilian surfer finished with a heat-total of 8.83 points, consequently surrendering victory to his rival.

The second Quarter-final had two surfing elites facing each other in a high-intensity match-up. Both Slater and Reynolds knew that the battle was going to be tough and that they would have to push hard if they wanted to get their hands on the win.

However, that is not how the things turned out to be. The 11-time ASP World Champion Slater asserted his dominance over his rival right from the word go, collecting a 7.00 off his first business-wave and backing it up with an 8.00-point ride to finish with a heat-total of 15.00 points.

Reynolds failed to offer much of a fight, earning a 3.67 and 6.17 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 9.84 points, 5.16 points shorts of the required score.

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Posted by Muhammad Qasim Hassan on Aug 10 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.