With Tyler Wright's Championship win Thursday at the Maui Women's Pro, Australian Stephanie Gilmore's shot at Title No. 7 is over for 2017. But that doesn't mean she's not chasing a win on Maui, where the final women's elite contest of the year is unfolding. In fact, the perfect faces at Honolua Bay have inspired some of Gilmore's most aggressive surfing of the entire season. While she lost her Round One heat, she quickly rebounded in Round Two, where she opened with a 9.57 and took down good friend Laura Enever. She pulled off another stellar start in Round Three, again coming in hot with a 9-pointer to start. As her last act Thursday before showering Wright with champagne, she won her Quarterfinal heat over Silvana Lima -- sweet payback, perhaps for Lima's win over her at Trestles in September -- to fly straight to the Semifinals.
In a twist of fate, Gilmore will face Wright in the Semis when the contest resumes. And Gilmore means business: As she hugged Wright today to congratulate her on her second Title, she leaned in and said that tomorrow, it's on.