Lone Aussie man standing after The Box delivers carnage
Jacob Willcox kept the Australian flag flying and Crosby Colapinto secured his place on tour as The Box delivered high-consequence surfing at the Margaret River Pro.
Action returned to the heavy slab break, instead of Main Break, for the first time since 2019 for Wednesday's men's round-of-16.
And it produced a day of pulsating action, Griffin Colaptino's early nine-point wave, Barron Mamiya's 15.17 total, Willcox's lone Australian hand and Jordy Smith's (17.33) clinic the highlights among a series of heavy wipeouts.
Colapinto (16.00) knocked out Australian Mikey McDonagh (2.43), with West Australian Willcox's comfortable defeat of Brazil's Joao Chianca leaving him as the sole local hope in the final eight.
Colapinto's younger brother Crosby then hung on in a low-scoring, emotional heat with Jackson Bunch that determined who survived the mid-season cut.
His 6.53 total was enough to oust the Hawaiian (3.34) and set up a quarterfinal with Willcox.
Bigger swell is tipped in coming days, but mostly off-shore, with no surfing on Thursday and the next call on Friday morning.
Alive and waiting in the round-of-16 as one of five Australian women, Sally Fitzgibbons needs at least a quarter-final appearance to avoid a third straight top 10 mid-season cut.
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Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
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The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
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The Advertiser
2 hours ago
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Emerson Jones has stepped up her mission to win the girls singles at the French Open and regain her junior world No.1 ranking by reaching the last four at Roland Garros. Australia's No.1 seed proved too strong for American opponent Julieta Pareja, the No.9 seed, on court 14, winning 7-5 6-4. The Gold Coast 16-year-old will now take on Austria's Lilli Tagger in Friday's semi-final. Tagger reached the last four by overpowering Germany's 12-seeded Julia Stusek 6-0 6-4. Jones is attempting to become the first Australian since West Australian Lesley Hunt, 57 years ago, to win a girls' singles tournament at Roland Garros. Her victims this week have included Capucine Jauffret, of the US, and Czechia's Vendula Valdmannova, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year. She needed three sets to progress from those matches but delivered a straight-sets victory over Spain's Charo Esquiva Banuls on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals. The Gold Coast local is also chasing a return to the junior world No.1 ranking at Roland Garros having recently been replaced at the top by Japan's Australian Open 2025 girls' singles champion, Wakana Sonobe. Victory today could pave the way to a final showdown with her doubles partner, Hannah Klugman. The British starlet beat Sarah Melany Fajmonova in three sets and now faces Bulgaria's Rositsa Dencheva. Emerson Jones has stepped up her mission to win the girls singles at the French Open and regain her junior world No.1 ranking by reaching the last four at Roland Garros. Australia's No.1 seed proved too strong for American opponent Julieta Pareja, the No.9 seed, on court 14, winning 7-5 6-4. The Gold Coast 16-year-old will now take on Austria's Lilli Tagger in Friday's semi-final. Tagger reached the last four by overpowering Germany's 12-seeded Julia Stusek 6-0 6-4. Jones is attempting to become the first Australian since West Australian Lesley Hunt, 57 years ago, to win a girls' singles tournament at Roland Garros. Her victims this week have included Capucine Jauffret, of the US, and Czechia's Vendula Valdmannova, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year. She needed three sets to progress from those matches but delivered a straight-sets victory over Spain's Charo Esquiva Banuls on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals. The Gold Coast local is also chasing a return to the junior world No.1 ranking at Roland Garros having recently been replaced at the top by Japan's Australian Open 2025 girls' singles champion, Wakana Sonobe. Victory today could pave the way to a final showdown with her doubles partner, Hannah Klugman. The British starlet beat Sarah Melany Fajmonova in three sets and now faces Bulgaria's Rositsa Dencheva.
