![Ryan Callinan gets vertical at the Rio Pro. Picture by Thiago Diz, WSL Ryan Callinan gets vertical at the Rio Pro. Picture by Thiago Diz, WSL](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ChN2GeGbsrYvYqhWaZEXS7/d74e8b87-5579-4aa5-8fac-8650008cb509.jpg/r0_117_4949_2852_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ryan Callinan made world No.2 Jack Robinson work hard for his spot in the round of 16 at the Rio Pro, leading for most of their opening round heat at Itauna.
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The Merewether goofy-footer, who sat 16th on the Championship Tour live rankings, was due to face Japanese world No.15 Kanoa Igarashi in the elimination round after finishing second to Robinson.
The West Australian regular-footer won 12.87 to Callinan's 11.23 and Brazilian Samuel Pupo's 8.30 in the four to six-foot waves at the penultimate stop of the world tour before the top-five finalists are decided.
Callinan opened with a 5.83 from three smooth frontside turns before Robinson fired back with a heat-high 7.0 on his backhand.
The Novocastrian found a 5.4 soon after from a two-turn combination to lead on best two-wave totals. The Paris Olympics-bound Robinson struggled to find a back-up score, missing the mark five times. He needed a 4.24 to beat Callinan and progress straight to the last 16.
He finally found the score on a wave with less than four minutes remaining, pulling off a tail-slide turn then a snap finish for a 5.87. That score dropped with a minute and a half left, leaving Callinan chasing a 7.04 to regain the lead.
"It's super good energy here," said Robinson, whose wife and coach are from Brazil.
"Everyone's super excited, and it feels like another home when I come here, you know, I have everybody that I travel with all year. So yeah, I love it."
World No.4 Ethan Ewing, Robinson's Paris Olympics teammate, also progressed straight to the round of 16 with a 12.87 total and victory in round one.
In the women's event, Newcastle-based two-time world champion Tyler Wright was a withdrawal because of a foot injury.
Central Coast star Molly Picklum, the world No.4, bounced back from an opening round loss to beat Bettylou Sakura Johnson 12.23 to 6.9 and book a match-up with another Hawaiian, world No.6 Gabriela Bryan, in the quarter-finals.
Bryan downed Frenchwoman Johanne Defay 10.84 to 4.06 in the elimination round and will leapfrog her into fifth spot with a victory over Picklum.