Taiwan's Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (??) and Wang Chi-lin (???) were knocked out of the BWF World Tour Finals in Indonesia after suffering a semifinal defeat to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo Saturday.

Lee and Yang lost to the world No. 1 partnership of Gideon and Sukamuljo 21-18, 21-23, 17-21 in one hour and one minute at the Bali International Convention Center. The Indonesians also extended their head-to-head advantage over the Taiwanese team 5-1.

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.

Held Dec. 1-5 and carrying a total prize purse of US$1.5 million, the tournament 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.

In addition to making it into the World Tour Finals, the Taiwanese duo also had a remarkable season, lifting some top trophies earlier in the year and also being named by the BWF as the Most Improved Player of the Year.

The duo won Taiwan's first-ever Olympic gold medal in badminton by winning the men's doubles at the Tokyo Games, and also clinched the men's doubles title at the two Super 1000 Thailand Open tournaments in Bangkok in January and the BWF World Tour Finals 2020 in that same month.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel