SINGAPORE paddlers Gao Ning and Yang Zi have been knocked out of the men's doubles semi-finals at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Busan, Korea on Saturday.

The defending champions lost 2-4 (15-13, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 10-12, 8-11) to Chinese duo Zhou Yu and Yan An.

Despite their loss, the Singaporeans still earned a bronze, coming in joint-third with Japanese pair Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa, who fell to China's Ma Long and Xu Xin.

Earlier in the competition, Gao and Yang had disposed of three other teams - Kyrgyzstan's Alisher Iakupbaev, Korea's Kim Dong Hyun and Seo Hyun Deok, and Hong Kong's Cheung Yuk and Leung Chu Yan.