Regardless of how the rest of the week plays out, Australian surfer Tyler Wright is guaranteed to add to her lead at the top of the world ratings after a dream day in the water in California.
Wright defeated fellow Australian Laura Enever with a combined score of 13.50 on Monday (Tuesday AEST), to reach the competition's final four in swells of over a metre at Lower Trestles.
Her quarter-final win came after main title rival Courtney Conlogue was beaten by six-time Australian world champion Stephanie Gilmore in the fourth round.
Gilmore again came to the assistance of Wright in the quarter-finals, when she defeated Hawaiian world No.3 Carissa Moore - with her first two waves producing a combined score of 16.10.
"Obviously to see Courtney go out was good for Tyler , but we're all here for one thing, and I want to win," Gilmore said.
But it means Wright will now take at least a 5000 point lead into the final three events of the year, even if she loses her semi-final to American Sage Errickson.
A win, worth 10,000 points, would put her almost an entire event clear.
"I've never felt this comfortable or this confident," Wright said.
"It's definitely different for me this year and I'm just going with it.
"I'm not setting out a certain way that I should feel about things. This is just the way I'm feeling and I'm going out to do my job -- and that's to win every heat and every final."
Australians make up three of the four semi-finalists, after Nikki Van Dijk accounted for Hawaiian Malia Manuel in her quarter-final.
Van Dijk produced the highest round score of the quarter-finals with a combined score of 16.16, easily accounting for Manuel's 12.60.
Meanwhile Gilmore's semi-final appearance is her first of 2016, despite reaching the quarter-finals in five of the first six events.
"I was actually really nervous going into that because I haven't gotten past the quarter-finals in a while and I haven't won an event in a while," Gilmore said.
Keeley Andrews was the only Australian to taste defeat on Monday, beaten by Manuel in the knockout fourth round.
