Taiwan badminton duo Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin lose Tour Finals opener

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) Olympic men's doubles gold-medalists Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) got off to a rough start at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals in Indonesia Wednesday after falling 21-23, 19-21 to Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

Lee and Yang were defeated by the World Tour No. 1s and the tournament's top seeds Gideon and Sukamuljo in 44 minutes on Court 1 at the Bali International Convention Center. The Indonesians also extended their head-to-head advantage over the Taiwanese pairing to 4-1.

The Taiwanese duo will next face World Tour No. 3s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark Thursday.

On Wednesday, both pairs put up a tough fight in the opening game to tie the score at 21 before Gideon and Sukamuljo drove the next two points to pocket the game 23-21.

Scores tied again at 14-14 in the second game, with Gideon and Sukamuljo quickly edging the encounter to take a slight lead.

They found a match point opportunity 20-18, after which Lee and Yang saved the first point before conceding the second.

The BWF World Tour Finals, the final event of badminton's World Tour, consists of the top eight players and teams in each category, with gold medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics also qualifying for the tournament.

The players and pairs from each category are divided into two groups of four, with the top two from each group progressing into the semifinals.

The other pair in Lee and Yang's group are World Tour No. 7s Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy of India.

The tournament, held Dec. 1-5 and carrying a total prize purse of US$1.5 million, is also the last stop of the three-tournament "Indonesia Badminton Festival 2021."

The festival also includes the US$850,000 Super 1000 Indonesia Open, held Nov. 23-28, and the US$600,000 Super 750 Indonesia Masters, held Nov. 16-21.