Frederico Morais Secures Career-Best Result in Challenger Series | Ballito Pro 2022

Portuguese has already secured a career-best result in the Challenger Series

• Photo: WSL

Frederico Morais guaranteed, this Friday, his presence on the final day of the Ballito Pro, in what is already the best result of the Portuguese surfer’s career on the Challenger Series circuit. Kikas has been in the spotlight in the South African race and this performance will already guarantee a considerable and important rise in the ranking, whose final top 10 guarantees a place in the 2024 world tour.

With the semi-finals guaranteed, where he will face the young American Kade Matson, Frederico will have at least 12530 points in the ranking. Something that temporarily puts him in 4th place. If he goes to the final, Kikas will advance to 3rd place in the ranking. If that happens, he already knows that he will leave Ballito in that position, regardless of the outcome of the final.

However, Frederico can still be overtaken by two opponents. If he loses in the semi-finals against Kade Matson, he will be surpassed in the ranking by the North American. In this scenario of 3rd place, if the final triumph goes to Joan Duru, he will also be surpassed by the experienced French surfer. Even so, the worst that can happen is leaving Ballito in 6th place, well within the qualifying cut.

Of the surfers in the semi-finals, only Cole Houshmand is above Kikas in the ranking, which is already out of reach for the Portuguese surfer. And the American just needs to go to the final to guarantee that he will leave Ballito at the top of the ranking, overcoming the Australian Jacob Willcox, who was eliminated today in the quarter-finals.

After a 5th place in France, in 2021, and another 5th place in this same race, last year, Frederico Morais, 31 years old, already knows that this is the best performance since the Challenger Series circuit was started three years ago. A victory in this race will be a feat on a par with the triumph achieved at the QS10000 in Haleiwa, Hawaii, in 2019.

With three stages already disputed on this circuit and three more to be disputed (California, Ericeira and Saquarema), Frederico, who arrived at this event in 10th place in the ranking, is thus well set to return to the elite of world surfing, where he left in the mid-season cut of 2022. Another strong result this season could be enough to stamp this spot on the World Tour in 2024.

By Joao Vasco Nunes
2023-07-07 22:09:00
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