Los Angeles, United States: Rianne Malixi continued her excellent run of form to sweep into the Round of 32 at the 123rd US Women’s Amateur.

A losing finalist in last month’s US Junior Girls championship, the 16-year-old from the Philippines ran out a 5&3 winner over American left-hander Ellie Koo in the first match play knockout round on Wednesday.

Four-up through six holes at Bel-Air Country Club, Malixi remained in control, closing out the match on the 15th hole.

She has booked herself an intriguing Round of 32 contest against American Bailey Shoemaker.

On a day when three Asian players suffered the heartbreak of being eliminated in sudden-death extra-time, joining Malixi in the next round are Japan’s Rin Yoshida and Australian Caitlin Peirce.

Showing remarkable resilience, Peirce produced a typically gutsy performance to edge past Canadian Savannah Grewal one-up.

Peirce, who arrived in the US on Sunday having represented the Asia-Pacific team against Europe in the Patsy Hankins Trophy in Spain, appeared to be heading out when she went two-down to Grewal after 10 holes.

Peirce halved the deficit at 12 and then drew level at 16. She completed the turnaround with a winning par on 18. The only other time she had led the match was after the first hole.

Next up for Peirce is Casey Weldenfeld, who produced an even more stunning fightback to book her place in the Round of 32 at the expense of Thailand’s Thanana Kotchasanmanee.

Ahead from the second hole, Thanana built a seemingly unassailable four-up advantage through 13 holes. But her opponent won the 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th to square the contest before prevailing with a par at the 22nd hole.

In contrast, Yoshida, 17th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), advanced after her opponent, Lauren Miller, defaulted her match before it began due to a medical emergency.

In what promises to be a high-quality clash on Thursday, Yoshida will take on American standout Rachel Heck, 25th in the WAGR.

Yoshida and Stanford University’s Heck were also grouped together during the 36-hole stroke play portion of this championship. The American ended joint eighth on three-under 137, while Yoshida was tied 18th on 140.

Two-time US Curtis Cup team member Heck was given a major scare by Yoshida’s compatriot Sera Hasegawa in the Round of 64.

Hasegawa survived a 10-for-nine play-off to determine the last match play spots on Wednesday morning to earn the right to take on Heck.

In a fiercely-contested match in which there was never more than one hole in it, Heck was pegged back to all square at the 17th. She eventually squeezed through thanks to a birdie two at the 21st hole, the short third.

Like Hasegawa, Chinese Taipei’s Chen Ching-tzu made it through the morning play-off but her progress was halted by American Nikki Oh. All square after 14 holes, Chen lost 15 and 16 with bogeys, her opponent completing a 2&1 success at 17.

Also bowing out was Malaysian Jeneath Wong after another epic clash in which American Catherine Rao was three-up through 15. But Wong won each of the last three holes with pars to extend the match before losing at the 20th hole.