First World championship (2009–2012) Liu entered her first international tournament as she travelled to
Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan to play in the 2009
All Japan Championship. She reached the semi-finals before losing 49 to
Lim Yun-Mi. Just one week later, she travelled back to China, and as a
wild card was entered into the
2009 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, being held in China for the first time. In a field of 64 players, she made it to the
single-elimination rounds before defeating
Tamara Rademakers 94,
Chen Siming 97 and
Pan Xiaoting 98 to reach the final. Her opponent in the final,
Karen Corr won five of the first six to lead 51. Liu completed six in the next eight racks to win the match and the tournament 95. Aged 16, she was the youngest winner of the event. She was both the youngest winner of the event and the first to win coming through qualification. Following the win, Liu won
China Central Television's "Best Non-Olympic Athlete of the Year" award at their Sports Personality of the Year event. She progressed from her group, but finished in the round of 32. In defending her World nine-ball championship in
2010, Liu defeated Chen Siming to set-up a semi-final match against Fu. Liu was unable to win the match, as she lost to Fu 69, but did win the third place match against
Shu-Han Chung. Fu, who had celebrated Liu's victory in 2009, won the event, with back-to-back World championships for the pair from the same village. She competed in the 2010
China 9-Ball Open, reaching the quarter-finals, where she played her opponent from the 2009 World final
Karen Corr, losing 29. Competing at the
2010 Asian Games, Liu was playing her first international
eight-ball tournament, she reached the final and played
Kim Ga-young. With the match at , Kim had a shot to win the match on the , but missed, allowing Liu to win the match and tournament. This was the first Asian Games victory for a Chinese player in pool. She participated in a
ten-ball event, the Philippines Open, where she lost in the semi-finals to
Kelly Fisher. Liu, however, did defeat Fisher at the
Beijing Open last 16, before being defeated in the quarter-finals by
Chou Chieh-Yu. At the
2011 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, she reached the quarter-finals again, losing to
Han Yu. She also took part in the
WPA World Ten-ball Championship, she reached the quarter-finals again, losing 19 to
Kim Ga-Young. She reached the semi-finals of the
2012 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, despite going to hill-hill with Kelly Fisher, she lost 89. Competing again at the 2012 World ten-ball championship, she played Fu again, losing 68.
Back-to-back World Championships (2013–2015) Liu won her first tournament since the 2010 Asian Games at the 2013 China Open. She defeated
Chen Siming 98 in the final. She reached WPA world number two following the win. At the
2013 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, she reached the semi-finals, before being defeated by
Lin Yuan-Chun. Competing at the
2013 WPA World Ten-ball Championship, she lost 89 to
Park Eunji in the last 16. In defence of her China Open title, she reached the semi-finals of the 2014 event, losing to eventual champion Han Yu 49. At the
2014 World Team Championship, she partnered Fu,
Liu Haitao,
Dang Jinhu and
Wang Can. The team won their group and the knockout matches without losing a match and won the tournament with a 42 win in the final over the Philippines team. On winning her second world title, Liu commented that she had considered giving up pool having not had great form coming into the tournament, but family encouragement had prevented it. She said "last year I was under so much pressure that I thought about quitting pool and I didn't know if I could improve" and "Winning this year is a better feeling and it's more important than when I won in 2009". Liu reached the final of the next tournament, the 2014
All Japan Championship, where she lost 39 to
Wu Zhi-Ting. She competed at the 2015 China Open, reaching the last 16 29 to Kelly Fisher. In defending her world nine-ball championship at the
2015 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, she reached the final again, where she played Ouschan. Liu won five out of the first six racks and completed a 94 victory. This was her third world nine-ball title, the first Asian player to do so.
Two China Open finals (2016–2019) At the 2016 China Open, Liu reached the final for the second time. She played Han Yu in the final. Despite leading 85, she lost the match 89. In defending her world nine-ball championship at the
2016 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship she was only able to reach the last 16 stage, being defeated 79 by Gao Meng. Liu had led 62, but was unable to win the match. She lost her place as world number one at the end of the tournament. Liu reached the semi-final of the 2017 Amway Cup, where she was beaten
Pan Xiaoting 69. She did defeat Pan in the quarter-finals and then Fu in the semi-finals of the 2017 China Open. She played Chen Siming in her third China Open final, losing 89. With the score being the reverse of the 2014 World nine-ball final, Chen said "this time, I've given you a taste of your own medicine." She played in the ladies events of the 2017
WPA World Heyball Championship, losing in the quarter-finals. In 2018, she reached the quarter-finals of the Amway Cup, losing 29 to Siming. She reached the semi-finals of the 2018 China Open, but lost a hill-hill game to Kelly Fisher. Liu played in the
2018 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, but was defeated in the last 16 by
Jiang Teng. Playing at the 2018 World Heyball championship, she reached the final, her fourth World championship final. She played Han in the final, trailing 513, fought back to 1415 behind, but eventually lost 1417. In September, Liu won the Chinese Billiards International Open, defeating
Wang Ye 97. Liu reached her fourth straight China Open semi-final in 2019, this time losing 59 to
Rubilen Amit. She then reached the quarter-finals of the
2019 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship, losing to Kelly Fisher 59.
Post-COVID-19 restrictions (2023–present) Travel and international play for Chinese athletes was disrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Liu returned to play in August 2023 in a national team selection competition. She competed at the returning 2023 China Open, which had not been held since 2019. She was defeated in the final by Han 79. She played at the 2024 All Japan championship, reaching the semi-finals, where she lost to
Wang Xiaotong. Liu entered the 2024 Asian ten-ball championship where she reached the final, and defeated
Rubilen Amit in the final 76. The win meant that Liu would play in
the ten-ball event at the
2025 World Games. At the World Games, she reached the semi-finals, but lost to
Chezka Centeno 47. Liu won the bronze medal, defeating
Ina Kaplan 76. The same year, she reached her fifth China Open final, this time being defeated by
Chihiro Kawahara 79. In December, she entered her first
Euro Tour event, the 2025 Spanish Open. She defeated Ouschan 83 in the final to win the event. ==Personal life==