Stephanie Gilmore has missed a golden chance to spark her World Surf League season, losing in the final stages of the MEO Pro semi-finals in Portugal to Lakey Peterson.
The seven-time world champion paired 6.5 and 5.5-point waves in the first five minutes of their early-morning heat at Supertubos to apply the pressure.
But the American fired back with a heat-best 6.77 and then, with less than two minutes on the clock, produced a 5.57-point ride to pip Gilmore 12.35 to 12.
