Taj Burrow kept his world championship surfing title hopes alive by joining fellow contenders Mick Fanning and Kelly Slater in the third round of the Santa Catarina Pro on Sunday.

A win for Fanning in the ninth event of the year would give him the title before the final event at Hawaii's Pipeline next month.

Burrow had to wait an extra day to surf his opening heat in small conditions at Imbituba but compiled 16.2 points out of 20 to account for fellow Australian Luke Stedman (11.34) and local wild card entry Marco Polo (15.33).

The remaining seven first-round heats were completed but only six of the 16 second-round knock-outs were done before an on-shore wind tore apart the one-metre waves.

Australians Bede Durbidge, Tom Whitaker and Michael Campbell progressed, Whitaker managing the highest heat score of 13.17 to beat Brazilian Fabio Gouveia's nine points.

World No.9 Pancho Sullivan was the biggest casualty of the day, the Hawaiian losing to wildcard Polo 12.17 to 5.34.

Those still to contest the second round include Australians Mark Occhilupo, Kai Otton, Luke Stedman, Troy Brooks, Adrian Buchan, Josh Kerr, and Phil MacDonald.

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