Top seeds Gony Zubizarreta (ESP), Marlon Lipke (DEU), Nicolaus Rupp (DEU) and Eduardo Fernandes (PRT) advanced through to the final day of competition at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s Star Series Cordoama Buondi Pro at the main event site at Praia da Cordoama. Battling through their respective quarter-final encounters each remaining surfer has staked his claim on this year’s Cordoama Buondi Pro title.

Persistently strong cross-shore winds made for another day of tough competition where wave selection played a large role in securing a win. Peaks in the 3-4ft (1-1.2m) range improved slightly as the tide pushed in during the early afternoon session of competition.

Nicolaus Rupp (DEU) advanced in a low scoring however closely fought out clash against junior Basque surfer Marcos San Segundo. It turned out that Rupp’s pre-heat preparation played a big part in him stepping closer to the winner’s podium.

“Marcos is a really good surfer and we have been doing the pro juniors together for a couple of years so I sat up on the cliffs with my coach and watched a good right coming in and I knew with the incoming tide the left would start working so I just positioned myself and I managed to get the two scores I needed to get through and get the win.”

Rupp will face good friend and training partner Gony Zubizarreta in tomorrow’s first semi-final however the 18-year-old is taking it like any other heat and feels that it may be more like one of their many training sessions when the pair hit the water.

“Coming up against Gony is such a good feeling because when I was young I used to come down to Marlon’s (Lipke) house and Gony was always hanging out here and that was ten years ago when I started surfing. Being against him in the semi-final is a great feeling and he is my training partner and we have the same coach and we are actually going training after this event for two weeks to prepare for the pro junior series. I think it is going to be like a normal training session out there tomorrow in the semis as we usually surf alone together and it is man on man heats so it will be interesting.”

Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) continued his approach of building on his scores as the heat progresses to find himself in semi-finals and ready to keep the momentum going for the final day of competition. The 25-year-old from Vigo, Galicia is on a comeback mission after having a slow start to the season. Surfing with speed and showing maturity in his competitive approach the formula is prepared to go all the way at the Cordoama Buondi Pro 2010 edition.

“I felt good out there but it was hard for me to find a good wave and I was really motivated to surf but I couldn’t find a really good wall. The waves are a bit bigger today but with this wind it makes it quite difficult to find a good pocket to hit it really hard.”

“I am stoked to make it,” continued Zubizarreta. “Jose (Ferrreira) is surfing really well and I knew he could do some good turns so he is always a danger because it was a low scoring heat but I am happy to be here in Algarve and I can’t wait until the semi-finals tomorrow.”

Eduardo Fernandes (PRT) will face an in-form and seemingly unstoppable Marlon Lipke (DEU) in semi-final nº2 however the only remaining Portuguese in the event has finals experience here at Cordoama having placed second in last year’s edition.
The quietly spoken 22-year-old will wait until tomorrow and let his surfing do the talking.

Coming home strongly in his heat Fernandes obtained the score he needed with only moments left and felt comfortable during his come-from-behind victory over fellow Portuguese Ruben Gonzalez.

“In the end that left came through and I could do a few good maneuvers and I could make the score. I am very happy to be in the semi-finals and it should be a good heat against Marlon (Lipke).”

Marlon Lipke (DEU) was last but not least to qualify for the semi-finals with a blistering performance scoring a 9.17 out of a possible 10 the highest single score of the event so far. Performing huge carving turns on the high tide left-hand peaks Lipke has firmed as favourite to claim the Cordoama Buondi Pro title.

Lipke felt fine after his 25-minute clash and commented that he has some high quality boards at the moment which are allowing him to link together his turns in a stronger more impressive way and has complete confidence that he will do all he can in his quest for victory.

First call tomorrow will be at 11:30am (local time) for final day action at the Cordoama Buondi Pro

For all event results, photos and daily news and live scores log-on to www.aspeurope.com

CORDOAMA BUONDI PRO SEMI-FINAL MATCH-UPS
Heat 1: Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) Vs Nicolaus Rupp (DEU)
Heat 2: Eduardo Fernandes (PRT) Vs Marlon Lipke (DEU)

CORDOAMA BUONDI PRO QUARTER FINAL RESULTS
Heat 1: Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) 11.34 Def. Jose Ferreira (PRT) 9.33
Heat 2: Nicolaus Rupp (DEU) 13.50 Def. Marcos San Segundo (EUK) 8.80
Heat 3: Eduardo Fernandes (PRT) 11.20 Def. Robertson Goncalves (PRT) 10.66
Heat 4: Marlon Lipke (DEU) 16.84 Def. Indar Perez (EUK) 10.04

SOURCE: ASP Europe