Bianca Buitendag got off to a flying start at the Roxy Pro France, winning her Round 1 heat by a solid 5.66pts margin.

Bianca scored a 7.17 and an 8.60 in Round 1 to secure one of the day’s highest heat totals.

Victory in Round 1 meant that the Southern Cape local jumped directly to Round 3, where she met up with world number 2, Steph Gilmore (AUS), and Courtney Conlogue (USA) in Heat 3. Bianca was once again in good form to nail the heat’s highest score – an 8.17 – but lost out narrowly to Courtney, who scored two straight 8.0’s to finish with 16.00. Bianca finished second just 0.17 points away from a spot in the Quarter Finals after backing up her high score with a 7.67. It was instead Courtney who jumped to the Quarters, while Bianca will have to surf again in Heat 3 of Round 4 against Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) to book her spot in the final rounds.

Ratings leader, Sally Fitzgibbons has advanced to the Quarter Finals.

Despite a slip-up in her opening heat, where she too was beaten by Courtney Conlogue, world tour ratings leader, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) didn’t put another foot wrong all day and also advanced to the Quarter Finals. Hawaii’s Malia Manuel and Carissa Moore are the other surfers to have already qualified for the Quarter Finals with their opponents still to be decided in Round 4.

Carissa Moore will be looking to keep up the pressure on ratings leader, Sally Fitzgibbons.

For Carissa Moore, who started the year so strongly with two victories during the opening leg of the tour in Australia, it’s important to keep the pace with Sally Fitzgibbons, who overtook her world tour ratings lead at the last event at Trestles. Including the Roxy Pro France, there are just three more events remaining on this year’s World Tour, which leaves little room for error if you’re aiming for a world title.

The waves were rippable on the opening day of the Roxy Pro France.

Check out aspworldtour.com for all the heat highlights, results and news from the Roxy Pro France.