Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen enters next week’s Wimbledon championships with a losing record on grass this season after throwing away her lead to exit the Bad Homburg Open on Wednesday.

But while Olympic champion Zheng lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to Clara Tauson of Denmark in the second round, she left Germany with 60 ranking points, lifting her to No 138 in the WTA rankings – an improvement of 15 places.

Meanwhile, compatriot Wang Xinyu advanced to the semi-finals of the WTA 500 event in Germany when Elina Svitolina withdrew from the quarter-finals with a right hip injury. The Ukrainian world No 8 now faces a race against time to be fit for Wimbledon.

World No 52 Wang will now face the winner of the quarter-final between Japan’s world No 15 Naomi Osaka and Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Wang, who reached the last 16 at the Australian Open in January and lost in the first round of the Berlin Open last week to Madison Keys, is currently China’s highest-ranked women’s player.

Former world No 4 Zheng admitted after her loss in Germany that she needed to maintain her standard and performance for a longer time.