Costa Rica's Brisa Hennessy finished ninth at the Barra de la Cruz CT in Mexico on Thursday after losing to France's Johanne Defay in a close series that could have ended with a victory for either of them.

Hennessy surfed at his best level of the season, choosing waves well, placing the board in the radical part and flowing.

After scoring a 6,9 and a 6,07, she was left needing a 6,75 from Defay until three minutes and 40 seconds remained. The Frenchwoman surfed a right that started very slowly but managed to connect three dynamic moves at the end. The last one was striking and the judges paid dearly: 7,77.

The final score was 14 versus 12,97.

With this result, Brisa Hennessy added her fifth ninth of the season, reaching 13.050 points and to remain in the classification zone she needs to reach approximately 20.000 points.

To do so, he basically needs to make it to the grand final on Stage 8 taking place next week in Teahupoo.