Three of the four women's world surfing title contenders won their opening heats at the penultimate event in Portugal on Thursday.
Stephanie Gilmore was the only member of the quartet forced into the repechage second round after finishing runner-up to fellow Australian Laura Enever 14 points to 13.37 in round one.
Rankings leader Sally Fitzgibbons won her heat with 15.57, No.2 Tyler Wright, the winner in France last week, turned in the day's best score of 15.96 and fourth-ranked defending world champion Carissa Moore of Hawaii scored 13.54.
"It's a really nice feeling to start the day with good scores," Fitzgibbons said after her performance in the metre-plus waves at the back-up site of Guincho.
"At the moment between the top four it's even stevens and there's a lot of work to be done to stay in this (No.1) jersey."
Ironically, third-ranked Gilmore is the only contender who can actually wrap up the world title at this event thanks to the scoring system.
Each competitor drops their worst result from the year's ten contests and Gilmore can discard a 13th placing from Brazil while her rivals have either fifth or ninth placings.
But in order to claim what would be her sixth title Gilmore would have to win in Portugal with Wright finishing no higher than fifth and Fitzgibbons and Moore no higher than third.
Local wildcard Teresa Bonvalot will be Gilmore's opponent in the second round.
