It's been a rough start to the season for Australia's Julian Wilson. Heading into 2017 many pundits had him pushing hard toward a World Title. Wilson's a perennial threat at the top, and seems to have all the fire in his belly to make a move. But in order to do so, he'll have to push past this rough patch of tough luck. He's had two pretty average results so far with a 13th at Snapper and a 9th at Margaret River. In both cases he lost by less than a point.
He was hoping to turn things around at the Rip Curl Pro, and started off on the right track with a convincing Round One win Saturday. On Sunday, he looked equally strong in Round Three in his match against Sebastian Zietz. Their battle quickly became the tightest match of the day. While Julian earned the heat's biggest score of a 9.37, he still fell .03 shy of Zietz in the end, and had to head home with another disappointing 13th place result.
Though that's likely enough to keep him in the teens on the Jeep Leaderboard, Wilson's close losses aren't likely to last. Wilson will have his way soon.