Australian surfer Chelsea Georgeson emerged the victor in the toughest battle of the third round of the Rip Curl Venus Festival at Les Estagnots, a beach three kilometres north of Hossegor.

Georgeson was too good for Hawaiian Melanie Bartels, returning to the world championship tour after missing the last two contest to evaluate her approach.

Bartels, known for her aerial antics, exploded into action with wave scores of 7.5 and 8.50 in the first eight minutes.

Unfortunately for her, Georgeson garnered the 8.75 she needed with a series of sweeping turns on a big open face to win 16.75 to 16.25 in the highest scoring heat of the day.

"Mel got those scores right off the bat. It looked kind of tricky out there but I knew there was a lot of scoring potential," Georgeson said.

Reigning world champion Sofia Mulanovich gained easy revenge on Australian wildcard Stephanie Gilmore, who downed the Peruvian earlier this year, winning 15.25 to 12.00.

"I'm just tired of hearing Steph this, Steph that. She's ripping, but it's done already. She beat me twice and that's cool, but she's another competitor like anybody else," Mulanovich said.

Rookie Claire Bevilacqua beat Hawaiian Megan Abubo to make the quarter-finals with fellow Aussie Samantha Cornish.

Two heats remained to be completed on Tuesday with Melanie Redman against Laurina McGrath and six times world champion Layne Beachley against Brazilian Maria Tita Tavara.

The quarter-final line-ups so far are Georgeson versus Cornish, Bevilacqua against Rochelle Ballard of Hawaii and Mulanovich versus Keala Kennelly of Hawaii.

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