Sixteen-year-old Australian star Jacob Willcox has announced himself on the world surfing scene by defeating 11-time world champion Kelly Slater.
The wildcard from Western Australia upstaged Slater in the opening round of the penultimate World Championship Tour event at Supertubos in Portugal.
Willcox, who won the under-16 world title in June, was contesting his second WCT event as a wildcard after producing the best wave of the trials - a nine point barrel ride - to secure the coveted spot.
Just a newborn when 41-year-old Slater won the fifth of his world titles, Willcox showed he was not intimidated by reputation.
"It was pretty fun out there. I got a couple of good ones," said Willcox.
"I was stoked to get the opportunity to surf against those guys in the trials, let alone win (a heat) so I'm really happy.
"I got a few waves out here yesterday so I knew the banks pretty well and this is my second time competing in a WCT so I just knew I had to keep calm and it worked out pretty well."
Competing in one and a half metre waves, Wilcox opened strongly against Slater, finding a big left-hand barrel to net an 8.00 point ride.
"Kelly (Slater) had priority and I was just up the beach a little bit more," Wilcox said.
"This left came and I just pulled into it and got a pretty good score. That got me rolling through the heat and I managed to get a couple of other ones to back it up."
Willcox won the three-man heat with 13.07 points for his best two rides to advance straight into round three while Slater had 9.60 and fellow American Kolohe Andino 5.50.
It meant Slater was relegated to a sudden death second round heat - as was Australia's Mick Fanning, who leads the world championship race from Slater.
Fellow Australian Matt Wilkinson netted a 17.37 out of a possible 20 to defeat Fanning and wildcard Francisco Alves.
Defending event champion Julian Wilson of Australia scored a convincing heat win, fresh off a quarter-final berth in France and sitting sixth on the ASP rankings.
"I know I can do good here," said Wilson.
"I really enjoy these waves and I know what boards have worked here in the past. I have a lot of experience cause I've won it here before, so I take it as a positive and will take it wave by wave."
Other heat one winners included Australians Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow, Josh Kerr and Kai Otton, along with Hawaii's John John Florence.
When competition resumes, first up will be 32-year-old Fanning against Alves in the opening heat of the elimination round two followed by Slater.
Depending on results, the second-last stop on the 10-event 2013 ASP World Championship Tour might determine the 2013 world champion.
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