Sally Fitzgibbons defeated at Margaret River Pro by Gabriela Bryan
Fitzgibbons needed to defeat world number one Gabriela Bryan to not only advance to the quarterfinals in WA, but also to avoid the top-10 mid-season cut for the third successive year.
Fitzgibbons opened their heat by attacking a wave to earn a 6.83, and with Bryan uncharacteristically falling off a few waves, the 34-year-old NSW surfer looked in control.
She bettered her back-up score with a nervous 4.33, leaving Bryan requiring a 7.33 score to reach the quarterfinals.
But with 90 seconds remaining, the Hawaiian launched onto a wave and showed off her power moves in a two-turn combination, wowing the judges to score a 9.00 to take out the heat.
Victory would also secure 14th-ranked Fitzgibbons a place on the 2026 Championship Tour after the WSL announced a larger women's field next year.
Fitzgibbons could have qualified for next year's Championship Tour if fellow Aussie Tyler Wright could defeat Californian Lakey Peterson.
But Wright also fell short in her round-of-16 battle, meaning Peterson qualified for the Champions Tour and sending Fitzgibbons back to the Challenger Series.
An emotional Fitzgibbons stayed out in the water, devastated to have let the win — and the opportunities it secured — slip away.
"I think for the first, like, 98 per cent of that heat it was all going against me, I could not get it together," Bryan said.
"I'm like, I just need to do two big turns, and I hit the first one as hard as I could and then I was like, OK, just finish this thing, and it all worked out, so I was so stoked that wave came."
Molly Picklum, Isabella Nichols and local wildcard Bronte Macaulay all won their match-ups on Monday.
Picklum, who would have taken over the yellow rankings leader jersey if Bryan had bowed out, downed American teen Bella Kenworthy, while Macaulay secured a late wave to eliminate 2023 world champion and Olympic gold medallist Caroline Marks.
The pair will meet in the quarter-finals, while the in-form Nichols, who beat France's Vahine Fierro, faces Peterson.
The men's quarter-finals are next into the water, with local qualifier Jacob Willcox the sole Australian.
AAP/ABC
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