Gilmore wins Roxy Pro

Australian Stephanie Gilmore has made the perfect start to her world title defence by winning the 2010 Roxy Pro Gold Coast at Snapper Rocks on Saturday.

The three-time world champion and defending champion on the Gold Coast defeated Hawaii's Melanie Bartels in the final, the same woman she beat in last year's final.

After cruising through her semi-final against Coco Ho, Gilmore only narrowly edged out Bartels 12.40 to 10.35 to take the first title of the year.

"It's definitely a dream start," Gilmore said. "I didn't really expect to win here. The waves weren't so great."

"I definitely didn't put in as incredible performance as I would have wanted to, and I'm sure Mel (Bartels) has the same feeling, but at the end of the day, I'm happy to win – that's awesome."

"I was definitely really relaxed but kind of nervous at the same time - just a little mixture of feeling."

"As defending event champ and defending world champ, I guess it put some pressure on me to win this event so it feels good to win."

Gilmore assumes top position on the rankings, but she admits that it's going to be a lot harder to stay there by the end of the year.

"It's really tough," Gilmore said. "They're hungry and I think when you start off the year with not the result you were looking for, you just go into the next event even more focused and more hungry and it's just getting harder and harder from here and then."

"She (Bartels) was one of the few girls really pushing us towards progressive maneuvers and really using that judging criteria to her advantage, so I'm definitely going to have to surf it up for the next events."