Manly Beach native Luke Cheadle scored highest on day four of the Australian Open as the men's round of 144 got underway on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old won heat number five on terra firma with a score of 16.93, the highest across the board on day four of the nine-day surfing competition.

And after a rough period in his personal life following the death of two close friends in as many months, Cheadle admitted the surf has kept him going.

“It’s been a hard couple of months,” he said.

“We’ve all been doing alright. I lived with Beck and Brett with my girlfriend and we’ve moved into a new place for a fresh start.

“Hopefully they can send me some waves. They did in my heat and I hope they can keep it going.”

The part-time model believes the home ground advantage played a major factor as well, citing how comfortable and refreshed he felt going into a local event.

“I don’t think I’ve surfed any other beach in Sydney aside from Queensie and North Steyne in five years,” he said.

“There is a great vibe down there, people in the community are really out there to support you.

“And sleeping in your own bed, all that stuff gives us an edge.”

Cheadle also benefited from a late tweak to his strategy after observing the state of play at Manly Beach shortly before his heat was due to begin.

“The surf isn’t too bad but it will get a little smaller through the week,” he explained.

“This means boards come into it a lot and people change equipment.

“I had a game plan, which was to go a bit wider - a few of us local guys were talking about it.

“It wasn’t working at the start but I stuck to it and it paid off.”

Cheadle will attempt to continue his good form in his second heat when he and the other qualifiers participate in the round of 96, after the opening heats conclude on Wednesday morning.

Round of 144 results:

Heat # 1

1 11.70 Dayyan Neve AUS

2 11.67 Leandro Usuna ARG

3 11.13 Dale Lovelock AUS

4 11.10 Steven Pierson PYF

Heat # 2

1 12.90 Chase Wilson USA

2 12.67 Cory Arrambide USA

3 10.74 Nobuyuki Osawa JPN

4 5.00 David Van Zyl ZAF

Heat # 3

1 11.34 Sidney Guimaraes BRA

2 11.30 Andrew Doheny USA

3 10.67 Jayke Sharp AUS

4 10.57 Ricardo Ferreira BRA

Heat # 4

1 14.07 Medi Veminardi REU

2 11.24 Daniel Karren AUS

3 10.43 Jordin Watson AUS

4 8.33 Tayler Brothers USA

Heat # 5

1 16.93 Luke Cheadle AUS

2 13.86 Tim Macdonald AUS

3 10.87 Yujiro Tsuji JPN

4 7.74 Taishi Kawabata JPN

Heat # 6

1 14.73 Alexandre Chacon AUS

2 12.76 Brent Savage AUS

3 8.23 Cahill Bell-Warren AUS

4 7.16 Richie Collins USA

Heat # 7

1 13.73 James Taipan Wood AUS

2 13.00 Caue Wood BRA

3 11.06 Beyrick De Vries ZAF

4 7.33 Jake Sylvester AUS

Heat # 8

1 13.90 Eric Geiselman USA

2 13.20 Keala Naihe HAW

3 13.06 Mark Occhilupo AUS

4 11.07 Jack Perry AUS

Heat # 9

1 14.50 Michael Dunphy USA

2 11.00 Dane Anderson USA

3 8.33 Michael Powell USA

4 6.04 Ramzi Boukhiam MAR

Heat #10

1 13.40 Ty Watson AUS

2 11.03 Todd Rosewall AUS

3 10.96 Kaito Ohashi JPN

4 9.47 Chris Foster HAW

Heat #11

1 13.33 Conner Coffin USA

2 12.27 Alan Jhones BRA

3 10.23 Nathan Webster AUS

4 7.20 Kento Takahashi JPN

Heat #12

1 12.63 Vasco Ribeiro PRT

2 11.17 Chris Friend AUS

3 8.60 Jesse Adam AUS

4 8.07 Rhys Bombaci AUS

Heat #13

1 15.40 Matt Banting AUS

2 10.17 Makai McNamara HAW

3 9.90 Dale Staples ZAF

4 8.57 Dean Bowen AUS

Liam Happe - on Twitter @liamhappe / Eurosport