Ethan Ewing has reached the last eight in the third leg of the WSL season, which has moved to Europe's Atlantic coast after two legs in Hawaii.
Ewing was the only Australian man of the five to enter the last 32 to survive both rounds on a sunny day at Supertubos, Portugal, amid typically changeable conditions
In the women's competition two-time world champion Tyler Wright is the only Australian through to the quarter-finals.
In the opening round Ewing beat Deivid Silva 13.36-11.97 including a 7.83 on his third run. He then took out another Brazilian, Italo Ferreira, twice a winner at the venue, 14.34-13.40, recording 8.17 on his fourth run.
“We noticed it was tough to get good waves here,” Ewing said. “We saw a few good sets up the other end of the beach but I was definitely nervous to go up there cause no one had gone there yet, but it paid off thankfully. That wave had a nice tapered wall and any wave with a steep first section is worth going, and I finished on the sand which was cool.”
The Queenslander now meets Morocco's Ramzi Boukhiam who beat Australian-born Connor O'Leary in the first round.. From Cronulla, NSW, but representing Japan O'Leary scored well but lost 15.10-12.90.
With all six players ranking above him at the start of the leg Ewing has already moved into the top three and could draw level, with victory, with first-placed American John John Florence.
In between them is Australia's Jack Robinson. Fresh off winning the leg in Oahu last month the 26-year-old from Margaret River defeated local hope Matias Canhoto 11.90-7.40 in the opening round.
But in the last-16 he ran into three-time World Champion Gabriel Medina . The Brazilian blew him away with a 17.16-8.84 win including a near-perfect 9.33 on a super high, full rotation perfectly executed and landed.
A trio of Australians went out in the opening round.
Liam O’Brien lost to American Jake Marshall 12.50-8.83, Jacob Willcox was beaten by Hawaii's Imaikalani deVault 12.70-10.33 and Callum Robson edged out by Rio Waida 11.73-11.50, the Indonesian catching 15 waves to Robson's ten.
Waida's board had been shipped by express from Australia. 'A magic board', he said with a smile, admitting 'I don't know much about boards, I just tell [my coaches] what I feel."
Waida then lost to French wildcard Joan Duru who had knocked out world No.2 Barron Mamiya in a 12.40-10.17 boilover in the first round.
