China's Sun Yingsha beats Liu in five games to advance in WTT US Smash

China's World No. 1 Sun Yingsha beat Yangzi Liu of Australia in five games to reach the WTT US Smash women's singles second round in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Faced with the World No. 33, Sun held advantages in both technique and experience, but the match did not turn out to be one-sided as expected.

In the opener, Sun raced to a 4-0 lead, but Liu fought back to narrow the gap to 8-7. Sun held firm to claim the game 11-7 with three consecutive points.

In the second game, Liu came out more aggressively while Sun made several early errors, falling behind 1-6. Despite the fact that Sun closed down the gap to two points, Liu maintained her hot streak to take the game 11-6 and level the match.

In the third game, Sun dominated from the start with a 5-1 lead and eased to a 11-4 win to go up 2-1.

In the fourth game, Liu jumped to an 8-1 lead. Although Sun managed to save one game point, the Chinese still lost 4-11, as the match went into a decider.

The battle then intensified with both players trading points. After leading 6-4, Sun forced a timeout from Liu, then won four straight points to reach match point at 10-4 before sealing her victory 11-4 to advance to the round of 32, where she will meet Egypt's Hana Goda.