Stephanie Gilmore’s World Surf League title defence hangs in the balance after the eight-time world champion made a poor start to the Tahiti Pro in Teahupo’o.
Gilmore entered stop No.10 on the tour ranked seventh in the world, meaning she needed a huge result in order to jump above both sixth-placed Lakey Peterson and fifth-placed Caitlin Simmers in order to make the end-of-season finals.
Her hopes were dealt a massive early blow on Saturday when Simmers won her opening three-person heat to catapult herself into the quarter-finals.
It means even if Simmers loses in the quarters, Gilmore will need to win the Tahiti Pro in order to jump the American in the world rankings.
Gilmore’s bid to earn direct entry into the quarters fell flat when she finished second in her three-person opening-round heat on Saturday.
The 35-year-old could only muster a two-wave tally of 4.73, falling well short of France’s Vahine Fierro (13.43).
Tyler Wright (0.97) finished third in the heat in the tricky conditions, meaning both her and Gilmore have been thrust into the elimination second round.
Gilmore will next face Peterson, with the loser to crash out of the race for a spot in the end-of-season finals.
On a tough morning for Australians, world No.4 Molly Picklum also failed to earn direct passage through to the quarters.
Picklum, who has already secured a berth for the end-of-season finals, will take on Gabriela Bryan in the elimination round.
World No.2 Wright will face Johanne Defay.
On the men’s side of the draw, Australian Jack Robinson kept his finals hopes alive with a dominant opening-round performance.
Robinson, who sits eighth in the standings, produced a two-wave tally of 15.57 to beat fellow Australians Callum Robson (11.70) and Connor O’Leary (11.33).
With Filipe Toledo, Ethan Ewing and Griffin Colapinto having already secured berths in the end-of-season finals, there are just two more spots up for grabs.
And an opening-round win in Tahiti to world No.5 Yago Dora means Robinson will now need to make the final in order to have any chance of sneaking in.
Opening-round wins to world No.7 John John Florence and world No.6 Gabriel Medina further complicates matters for Robinson.
However, if world No.2 Ewing is unable to compete at the end-of-season finals, it would open the door for the sixth-placed finisher to take his spot.
Ewing suffered a broken back in the lead-up to the Tahiti Pro and has since flown back to Australia to undergo further tests.
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