Karolina Pliskova has started her quest to win the year-end WTA Tour championships perfectly by dispatching Venus Williams 6-2 6-2 in Singapore.
Pliskova started strongly by winning the first three games, including breaking Williams' serve on the third break point.
It was a topsy-turvy set from there, with the crowd rallying behind Williams - a sentimental favourite here - when she finally got on the board in the fourth game, and again when she broke back in the fifth.
Pliskova took a decisive 4-2 lead in the set when she broke her opponent's serve to love in the next game, and she went on to take the set from there.
The Czech held her nerve to stave off a stern challenge from Williams in the early part of the set, and broke the American again in the fourth game of the second set to make it a tough mountain for Williams to climb.
But she was doing her best, at one point blasting Pliskova with a serve of 161km/h late in the second set.
She then staved off three match points before Pliskova finally managed to close it out in 73 minutes.
Williams made 19 unforced errors, including six double faults, in the match.
Sunday's late match pits two of this year's grand slam winners against each other when Wimbledon winner Garbine Muguruza meets French Open champ Jelena Ostapenko.
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