The SAR's star badminton pair of Jordan Tang and Tse Ying-suet lost on Thursday at the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou. The national team's Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong, gold medallists at the Paris Olympics in the summer, came from a game down to beat Tang and Tse 2-1. The Hong Kong, China pair took the first game with ease by the score of 21-14. It was tight in the second game before Zheng and Huang finished with a 6-0 run to win 21-13. Both teams exchanged runs in the nail-biting decider, with Tang and Tse going on a 6-1 rally to take an 11-6 advantage into intermission. The China duo bounced back with a 4-0 run of their own, before the SAR pair took a 15-11 lead. But Zheng and Huang took control from then on, winning 21-18, to the delight of the Hangzhou crowd. The Paris gold medallists are playing in their final tournament after Zheng announced his retirement from international competition last month. As for Tang and Tse, they face top-seeded Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin from the national team in their final group match on Friday. Jiang and Wei have won both their matches, the SAR pair and Zheng and Huang are both 1-1, and the Chinese Taipei pair of Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling-fang are 0-2. Only the top two pairs advance to the knockout stage. This could be the final tournament for the Hong Kong pair, after Tse indicated earlier she's pondering her future after battling a spate of injuries.
