China's Chen Meng returns the ball during the women's singles semifinal against Germany's Han Ying at the 2020 ITTF women's world cup in Weihai, east China's Shandong province, Nov 10, 2020. (ZHU ZHENG / XINHUA)

WEIHAI, China - China's Sun Yingsha outplayed her Japanese opponent Mima Ito to set up a final clash with compatriot Chen Meng at the ITTF Women's World Cup here on Tuesday.

Mima Ito, who has developed several new styles of serving in recent months, failed to fully unleash her service's power, and suffered many errors instead

Both 20 years old, Sun had led Ito 5-2 in previous head-to-head encounters. In a much-anticipated semifinal, Sun built a 10-6 lead in the opening game, but Ito saved four game points to level at 10-10. Sun soon regrouped herself to bag two straight points for a 12-10 win.

Showcasing her calmness in rallies, Sun nailed the following two games 11-8 and 11-6, and was two points away from a final berth in the fourth game. But Ito stepped up to turn it around at 12-10, before pulling another game back 11-4.

Ito, who has developed several new styles of serving in recent months, failed to fully unleash her service's power, and suffered many errors instead.

Sun gave little room for Ito's comeback afterwards, winning the sixth game 11-4.

"Ito is a strong opponent. We are at the same age, and have played many times before. I made full preparation for this match, no matter when leading or trailing, and stayed focused on every point," Sun commented.

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Chen came out the winner in the other semifinal by overcoming 37-year-old German Han Ying through a seven-game thriller.

Chen was somewhat unaccustomed to the playing style of Han, who had stunned Sofia Polcanova and Cheng I-Ching consecutively to reach the last four, losing the first game 11-4 and going 7-2 down in the second.

The top seed bounced back from there and won three games in a row at 11-8, 11-8, 11-9. However, Han came back again to force the match into a decider at 11-7 and 11-9.

Then Chen held firm in the seventh game and wrapped up the final with an 11-4 win.

"There were ups and downs throughout the match. After she pulled two games back, I managed to escape from the seventh game, which was a big recognition of myself. Hopefully I can carry the momentum into the final," Chen said.

Before the all-Chinese final on Tuesday night, Ito and Han will compete for the third place play-off.