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SCMP Sport

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 Japan’s world No 15 Naomi Osaka, who beat Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-2 in their quarter-final on Thursday.
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.
“I’d also felt the fluctuations in my performance. I have a lot of unforced errors in the third set, my serve ratio dropped too,” she said. “I also respond slower on the court after playing for more than two hours under the sun – these are the areas that I need to improve.
“Tennis isn’t about winning a brilliant point; you need to maintain that level of focus for maybe an hour and a half, or even two hours, to actually win a match.”
While Wimbledon is set to begin on Monday, the talk on social media focused more on what the Paris Olympic champion needed to do for the rest of the season.
Zheng’s career-best result at Wimbledon has been to reach the third round.
Any result beyond the first round at the grass court grand slam would earn Zheng at least 60 points on the world rankings, but her recent results on the grass, which included first and second-round losses at the HSBC Championships and the Nottingham Open, were not giving fans much hope.
“The next two tournaments for her are Wimbledon, and the WTA 250 event in Athens [in mid July]; she needs to earn at least 240 points from these two to have any hope of reaching the US Open main draw,” said one commentator.
Social media users even said that Zheng, who has signed up for a hard court event in Greece after Wimbledon, should instead look out for some WTA 125 events in the second week of Wimbledon, suggesting the 23-year-old Chinese will not last long at the All England Club.

“She should just play in some WTA 125 events. Always playing on the tour for a match or two, and she can’t even get as many points as in those challenger tours, it’s difficult to build anything up,” read one comment.
Joked another commentator: “It’s not bad that she keeps losing now; at least she won’t be picky about the tournaments now and we will be able to see her more often.”
To which a fellow Weibo user replied: “It doesn’t take much time to watch her play now anyway, always losing early.”
After Athens, Zheng is expected to be eligible for the qualifiers for the Rogers Cup and Cincinnati Open, two WTA 1000 events ahead of the US Open.
“Actually, it’s good to be practical. It only benefits her to play in qualifiers and challenger tours now,” said another Weibo user.
Speaking about the coming Wimbledon, Zheng said it was about enjoying each game as it comes.
“I hope I can give it my all in every match. Having a winning mentality is certainly fine, but at the same time, you have to tell yourself that winning isn’t the most important thing,” said the Hubei native. “Because if you do the process right, the result will be right. This is something I constantly remind myself of.”


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WTA (Women's Tennis Association)

Chinese tennis fans ‘help’ Zheng Qinwen look beyond Wimbledon after loss in warm-up event

China’s Zheng Qinwen has gone up 15 places in the WTA rankings despite her second-round loss at the Bad Homburg Open. Photo: AP

Wang Xinyu will face Naomi Osaka in the semi-finals in Germany. Photo: Xinhua

Zheng’s best result at Wimbledon was reaching the third round in 2022. Photo: AFP

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Kyrie Irving leaving his signature on the fan’s wall. Photo: Douyin screenshot

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Sport

Tennis

China

While Olympic champion loses in second round of Bad Homburg Open, Wang Xinyu reaches semi-finals of final event before grass court grand slam


While Olympic champion loses in second round of Bad Homburg Open, Wang Xinyu reaches semi-finals of final event before grass court grand slam.


Chinese tennis fans ‘help’ Zheng Qinwen look beyond Wimbledon after loss in warm-up event

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}While Olympic champion loses in second round of Bad Homburg Open, Wang Xinyu reaches semi-finals of final event before grass court grand slam

While Olympic champion loses in second round of Bad Homburg Open, Wang Xinyu reaches semi-finals of final event before grass court grand slam