Hong Kong pair Tang and Tse end 4-year wait for badminton mixed doubles title, eye World Tour Finals place
- Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet beat Indonesian pair Rehan Kusharjanto and Lisa Kusumawati to win Germany Open
- Rankings points boost lifts them into top 10 and within reach of place in World Tour Finals
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Hong Kong mixed doubles pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet are on the verge of returning to badminton’s World Tour Finals after ending their four-year title drought in Germany on Sunday.
The two-time world championships bronze medallists came back from behind to beat Indonesian pair Rehan Kusharjanto and Lisa Kusumawati 15-21, 21-15, 21-14 to put their hands on a trophy for the first time since November 2019.
Victory in Saarbrucken came a week after Tang and Tse lost the French Open final to China’s Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin.
The Hongkongers marched to the final having never been behind, but against Kusharjanto and Kusumawati the world No 11s had to fight back from being a game down to overcome the seventh seeds in 57 minutes.
Their first title since the Korea Masters will also earn them 7,000 ranking points, which is expected to be enough for them to overtake Chen Tang-jie and Toh Ee-wei of Malaysia, when the Badminton World Federation updates its list on Tuesday.
That would lift Tang and Tse into 10th and move them a step closer to the year-ending tournament, which is only open to the top eight players and pairs in each category. However, a maximum of two players or pairs per member association are eligible, and there are currently three pairs from China in the mixed doubles top 10.
Tang and Tse compete at the Japan Masters in Kumamoto next week, and are expected to make an appearance at the China Masters the week after. The list for the finals will be confirmed after the event in Shenzhen.
In the men’s singles, Lee Cheuk-yiu fell just short in the final against Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen.
