Three Australians have earned direct entry to the quarter-finals of the season-opening women’s world surfing championship event on the Gold Coast.

Four-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore gave a masterclass in Monday’s non-elimination third round, while Sydney’s Laura Enever beat Hawaii’s current world champion Carissa Moore.

Gilmore, Enever and fellow Aussie Tyler Wright go straight into the quarter-finals of the Roxy Pro, but world number two Sally Fitzgibbons, narrowly defeated by Hawaii’s Malia Manuel, faces sudden-death in round four.

Asked after her first win on Saturday what she would need to do to claim her fifth world crown this year, Gilmore said she would have to surf like men’s champion Kelly Slater, and she feels she’s giving it a good shot.

“I feel really strong,” she said.

“I feel like I can push my body in my turns and I’ve been doing some training and just surfing a lot and it feels good to be able to paddle out there and push really hard and be aggressive.”

But Gilmore said that’s where the comparisons with Slater end.

“I still like to be feminine and keep that style and grace, it’s so important to me and the judges really admire that too when they’re watching a female surfer, so that’s probably key to winning a world title.”

Enever, who scored a near-perfect 9.3 wave on the way to winning the heat containing Moore and New Zealand’s Paige Hareb, said knowing it was not an elimination round made her more relaxed.

“It made me want to push myself even more and when I saw that wave I thought I might as well go for broke because I was either going to get the score and get a niner or fall off and still go into the next round.”

She said she’ll try to carry that attitude with her into the quarter-finals.