Surfing: Burrow advances at Jeffreys Bay

Yallingup's Taj Burrow recovered from a slow start to the competition by defeating local favourite Sean Holmes in round two of The Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay.

The fourth event of the 2011 ASP World Tour kicked off this week in South Africa.

Burrow, the current number four in the ASP World Title Rankings, came second behind Brazilian Jadson Andre in his first-round heat.

However, he was in blistering form on Monday, taking down lethal wildcard Holmes in a closely-fought Round 2 battle.

“It’s tricky out there today,” Burrow said.

“It’s really clean, but a bit inconsistent. Sean is so dangerous out there – he knows the wave better than anyone and I wasn’t taking him lightly."

Burrow said he was “stoked” to get through and competitors hoped to benefit from swell later this week.

Twenty-three-year-old Jordy Smith, 2010 ASP World Runner-Up and defending event winner, was favourite after reigning ASP World Champion Kelly Slater withdrew.

Smith sailed through his first round heat, netting the highest heat total of the day of 16.87 as well as the highest single-wave score of nine, en route to a round-one victory over last year’s event runner-up Adam Melling, and Holmes.

Competition resumed after several lay days, with heat seven, round two.