Fanning, Gilmore chasing surf double

MICK Fanning must beat a mate and Stephanie Gilmore “a zappy pocket rocket” to keep alive a bid by the former champions to claim Australia’s first men’s and women’s double at the Rip Curl Pro since 2012.

Fanning and Sally Fitzgibbons achieved the feat six years ago and while the retiring star went on to repeat in 2014 and 2015 and Matt Wilkinson won in 2016, not a single Australian woman has won the crown in the past five years.

The pair have the chance to rectify this when competition in the World Tour event resumes.

If Fanning fails in his quarter- final, his opponent Owen Wright will take over the baton for Australia in the men’s competition.

“Yeah, it’s unfortunate that we matched up in the quarterfinals. Mick has been such a good friend to me for so long,’’ Wright said.

“We’ve ridden on the Rip Curl team together for the majority of our careers and he’s been there for me through a lot, especially in the last few years. It would definitely be hard to know that I was the person who knocked him out of his final event but at the end of the day it’s a competition and it’s not going to change how I look at the heat.’’

There is no back- up for Gilmore, the last Australian in the women’s tournament who is set to take on 16- year- old Caroline Marks in her semi- final.

The six- time world champion said she got a shock when she realised seven years had past since she last won the Rip Curl Pro – an event she took out for the first of three times as a tour rookie in 2007.