The judges gave Baker a nine, meaning Toledo needed a 6.91 to regain his lead and progress into the final four at the Rip Curl Pro. He completed a good surf in the dying seconds, before both surfers faced a long and nervous wait for the final scores, only for Toledo to get a seven and claim the heat by 0.1.

Toledo, the reigning world champion, admitted he was frustrated after finding out Baker had been given a nine.

“I’m fine, I’m a really emotional guy,” Toledo said.

“The last two heats that I turned on the last few seconds, I needed a score and that was all good. But this heat, I just felt that I was winning by far, and then he got the nine that I’ll have to watch again.

“Nothing against ‘Jacko’, I love the guy, we have a good relationship, and we’re always hanging out. It’s just the scoring that I don’t understand sometimes.

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“I didn’t have the score before I surfed my last wave, so I just surfed the best I could. Two big turns and a rotation at the end and one little turn, I thought, this is at least 7.5, and I needed a 6.9, and they gave me a seven. I don’t know what’s the go, I don’t know what they’re trying, but we’ll just keep scoring and surfing and doing my best, that’s it.”

Earlier, Toledo scraped into the quarter-finals at the death with a last-minute win over Jordy Smith.

Toledo tapped his wrist, calling for the clock with 70 seconds left in his heat, only to put up a 7.17 to eliminate Smith in ninth place.