Margaret River's Jack Robinson makes an early exit from his home World Surf League event

West Australian

20-05-2025

Jack Robinson's hopes of winning a third Margaret River Pro in four years came unstuck on a day of carnage for the championship tour's top seeds at Main Break.
Robinson, the 2022 and 2024 champion at his home event, was wiped-out on Tuesday in the final heat of the day by world No.32 Imaikalani deVault of Hawaii. His early exit was one of several upsets in pumping 8-10ft conditions, as five of the top-seven were eliminated in the round-of-32.
Current world No.1 Italo Ferreira of Brazil was also taken out by local qualifier Jacob Willcox, while No.2 Yago Dora of Brazil, No.5 Ethan Ewing of Australia and No.6 Filipe Toldo of Brazil were all surprise losers.
It leaves No.3 Jody Smith of South Africa and No.4 Kanoa Igarashi of Japan as the highest-seeded men remaining in the seventh and final World Surf League stop before the mid-season cut.
Robinson made a few uncharacteristic errors in his match-up with deVault, getting caught too deep in the barrel on a couple of occasions and getting caught on the lip and wiping out when taking an important wave inside the final six minutes.
He scored a 6.00 wave with just over two minutes remaining under second priority to reduce the number he needed to advance but ultimately ran out of time, falling with a two-wave 11.33 total to deVault's 14.33.
Needing to win the event to make the cut and stay on tour, deVault said he'd approached the heat against local favourite Robinson with nothing to lose.
'He's the guy to beat here, I feel like everybody knows that,' deVault said.
'My game plan was I had to get the best waves to beat him and he obviously knows the line-up so well so I was kind of just following him and he actually let me know on my good wave because it did kind of look like it was going to taper off but luckily it kept giving me the sections.'
Earlier, Australian wild-card Mikey McDonagh took out Dora to reach the round-of-16 at CT level for the first time.
But fellow Aussies Ewing, George Pittar, Winter Vincent, Liam O'Brien, Joel Vaughan were eliminated.
Pittar and O'Brien and another Australian Ryan Callinan, who went out in the elimination round, are among those to have already missed the cut.
The next call is at 7.15am on Wednesday with round-of-16 action.
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MEN'S ROUND-OF-32 RESULTS
HEAT 1:
Mikey McDonough AUS
12.77
(6.60, 6.17) def. Yago Dora BRA
11.30
(7.67, 3.63)
HEAT 2
: Griffin Colapinto USA
10.97
(6.50, 4.47) def. Cole Houshmand USA
9.70
(5.13, 4.77)
HEAT 3:
Leonardo Fioravanti ITA
17.13
(9.00, 8.13) def. Ian Gentil HAW
13.60
(7.00, 6.60)
HEAT 4:
Miguel Pupo BRA
15.27
(8.00, 7.27) def. George Pittar AUS
11.83
(7.00, 4.83)
HEAT 5:
Kanoa Igarashi JPN
13.16
(7.33, 5.83) def. Winter Vincent AUS
7.93
(4.10, 3.83)
HEAT 6:
Connor O'Leary JPN
14.37
(8.50, 5.87) def. Liam O'Brien AUS
13.33
(7.83, 5.50)
HEAT 7:
Jake Marshall USA
12.76
(6.43, 6.33) def. Samuel Pupo BRA
10.10
(5.43, 4.67)
HEAT 8:
Barron Mamiya HAW
13.54
(6.87, 6.67) def. Ian Gouveia BRA
13.06
(6.73, 6.33)
HEAT 9:
Jacob Willcox AUS
15.00
(8.33, 6.67) def. Italo Ferriera BRA
12.87
(6.87, 6.00)
HEAT 10:
Joao Chianca BRA
13.93
(8.73, 5.20) def. Matthew McGillivray RSA
10.87
(6.00, 4.87)
HEAT 11:
Jackson Bunch HAW
9.17
(4.63, 4.50) def. Filipe Toledo BRA
7.56
(3.83, 3.73)
HEAT 12:
Crosby Colapinto USA
16.00
(8.83, 7.17) def. Ethan Ewing AUS
14.33
(8.00, 6.33)
HEAT 13:
Jordy Smith RSA
12.50
(6.67, 5.83) def. Edgard Groggia BRA
8.53
(4.60, 3.93)
HEAT 14:
Marco Mignot FRA
13.67
(7.17, 6.50) def. Joel Vaughan AUS
12.80
(6.80, 6.00)
HEAT 15:
Alan Cleland MEX
13.40
(6.90, 6.50) def. Rio Waida IDN
10.50
(5.50, 5.00)
HEAT 16:
Imaikalani deVault HAW
14.33
(8.00, 6.33) def. Jack Robinson AUS
11.33
(6.00, 5.33)