Surfing: Taj misses title win

Reigning ASP world champion Kelly Slater has prevented Yallingup’s Taj Burrow from recording his first tour win of the year again.

Slater produced a perfect 10 to defeat Burrow at the semifinal stage of the Ripcurl Pro held at Supertubes in Peniche, Portugal.

Burrow claimed a round four win before dispatching of red-hot rookie Julian Wilson in the quarterfinals.

Burrow pulled out to an early lead against Slater in their semifinal encounter as both tube specialists went blow for blow in the opening exchanges.

However, a last-minute perfect 10 from the 10-time world champion sealed the deal and sent Burrow home with an equal third.

“What do you say after that?” Burrow said.

“It was another one of those situations where we were both getting good waves. I broke my board and was paddling out when he dropped in on that left – first left of the heat – and I knew it was a 10 straight away. I’m still a bit blown away.”

Slater was defeated by Brazilian Adriano de Souza in the final, but was still leading the world title race, needing just a ninth place finish in the next event to take out his eleventh title.

The next stop on the 2011 ASP World Title season will be the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco from November 1 to 12.