Tour rookies upset star surfers at the Rio Pro on Friday as Australians Josh Kerr, Matt Wilkinson, Bede Durbidge and Owen Wright fought their way into the quarter-finals.
Unfortunately the Aussies face each other in the last eight, aerial star Kerr against Durbidge and Wilkinson taking on Wright, who beat world No.2 and triple world champion Mich Fanning in round five with a two-wave score of 14.40 points to 9.60.
The third round contained the biggest surprises when Aussie rookie Matt Banting downed 11-time world champion Kelly Slater 10.80 to 6.70 and Hawaiian Keanu Asing pipped Brazil's defending world champion Gabriel Medina 14.17 to 13.60.
New Zealand's Ricardo Christie was another rookie to find the right waves in shifting 1.5m conditions, eliminating Brazil's current championship leader Adriano de Souza 16.57 to 13.90.
Christie went on to eliminate Banting by less than half a point to make the quarter-finals at Barra da Tijuca beach, where he will face local favourite and world No.3 Filipe Toledo.
The other quarter-final features Brazilians with Jadson Andre against qualifier Italo Ferreiro, who eliminated emerging Hawaiian star John John Florence in round five.
The women's event was on hold Friday but is expected to resume on Saturday with the second round.
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