SURFING

Teresa Bonvalot eliminated #1 Gabriela Bryan in the women's Opening Round of the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal on Friday, beating the Hawaiian 11.40-10.93 at Supertubos in Peniche. Francisca (Kika) Veselko joined her in the quarterfinals with an 8.54-7.90 win over #3 Sawyer Lindblad, giving the home crowd two Portuguese women among the final eight after a single day of competition. Yolanda Hopkins, the third Portuguese woman in the draw, went out against reigning world champion Molly Picklum despite riding the best single wave of the women's day.

The event is the 10th stop of the Championship Tour and the first of the postseason, moved to October after several years as a March fixture. The women's postseason field is cut to 16, the top 14 in the rankings plus two additions, which made the Opening Round a set of eight head-to-head heats. Winners went straight to the quarterfinals and losers left the event in ninth place. Organizers took advantage of hollow, high-quality waves and a favorable wind to complete the entire women's round along with the first two men's rounds.

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Brisa Hennessy saved her best wave for the final minutes at Ribeira d’Ilhas on Monday, scoring a 7.50 to win the EDP Ericeira Pro and move into the Challenger Series qualification places with one event left in the season. The Costa Rican sat fourth for much of the four-surfer final before the late ride lifted her total to 13.17, built on the 7.50 and a 5.67. Australia’s Lucy Darragh finished second with 10.30, Sierra Kerr took third with 9.07 and France’s Vahine Fierro placed fourth with 8.83. The finals ran under sunshine, with a northwest swell producing sets of more than a metre.

Poor, inconsistent surf early in the waiting period pushed organizers to run four-surfer heats through the rest of the event, and Hennessy handled the change cleanly. She won her quarterfinal with 12.43 over Brazil’s Laura Raupp, Bella Kenworthy and Spain’s Ariane Ochoa, then took the first semifinal with 12.66 ahead of Kerr (11.16), Raupp (10.50) and Eden Walla (9.77).

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Charli Hately turned a Challenger Series final into the biggest victory of her career Saturday, defeating Francisca Veselko 14.33-10.67 to win the Banco do Brasil São Sebastião Pro at Maresias.

The Australian built the winning total with a 7.83 and a 6.50 in the final, and Veselko, the Portuguese surfer, could not produce the score needed to catch her before time expired. The victory earned Hately 10,000 Challenger Series points and lifted her to 10th in the standings with 11,940 points.

Hately’s breakthrough came at the end of a demanding Finals Day that began with the women’s quarterfinals. She defeated Eweleiula Wong 11.24-8.17 to reach the semifinals, where she beat Anat Lelior 13.83-10.97. Her 14.33 in the final bettered that semifinal total and was her strongest of the day.

Veselko’s run was just as emphatic. She defeated fellow Portuguese surfer Teresa Bonvalot 13.16-9.70 in the quarterfinals, then eliminated former Championship Tour competitor Sally Fitzgibbons 13.50-7.10 in the semifinals. Her runner-up finish earned 7,800 points and moved her into second place in the Challenger Series standings behind Sierra Kerr.

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Kiara Goold stopped Challenger Series leader Sierra Kerr short of a possible Championship Tour qualification clincher Friday, winning their Round of 16 heat 12.13–10.17 at the Banco do Brasil São Sebastião Pro in Maresias, Brazil.

Kerr entered the heat needing two more wins to mathematically secure her place on the 2027 Championship Tour. Goold, a 16-year-old from Tahiti, denied her the first of them with a pair of solid rides, a 6.13 and a 6.00, that kept the Australian chasing for the rest of the heat. Goold, the last Tahitian left in the draw, said she simply tried to make the most of the waves she found after working for priority early.

The result sent Goold into Saturday’s quarterfinals and left Kerr’s qualification unresolved. The ranking leader had moved steadily through the early rounds, winning her Round of 32 heat with a 12.10, but she now has to wait for a later Challenger Series stop to finish the job.

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