HONG KONG'S bubble burst the moment the word ''Sydney'' was uttered. Loud groans drowned out the televised celebrations of the Australians in Monte Carlo before silent disbelief set in. As rain drenched the streets outside, inside restaurants and homes parties were dampened not by champagne but by dejection. The Governor, Chris Patten, was quick to congratulate Sydney while the Liberal Party urged China to try again. Mr Patten said: ''There will, of course, be a good deal of disappointment among Hong Kong people that Beijing did not get the Games this time. ''But I am sure that excellent bids will have been submitted by all the short-listed competitions and that the decision must have been very close.'' But at the Treasure Seafood Restaurant in North Point, nothing could lift the gloom. Four bottles of champagne remained on ice and four dozen glasses remained empty as disheartened Beijing supporters left quickly after the vote was announced. Li Fu-yung, China's director of sports training and himself a former Olympic athlete, said there were no faults in the Beijing bid. ''We did everything we could. I'm sorry that we did not get it, but we did our best. ''Now we must look to competing in the 1996 and 2000 Games. We cannot think about bidding for 2004 yet.'' Another guest at the impromptu party, Tony Yu Kwok-leung, chairman of the Hong Kong Table Tennis Association, was devastated by the result. ''I'm so disappointed. I hope Sydney will make it a good Games, but I so wanted Beijing to win. I want to know how close the voting was. ''Beijing did so well - a month ago it was so far behind but then it became a front-runner. That is an achievement in itself.'' The gloom which sank on the restaurant after the announcement was a far cry from the tense but excited mood of expectation just minutes before, when every glimpse of the Beijing 2000 pagoda logo brought cheers and applause. Disappointment also hit the Liberal Party. But a spokesman added: ''We hope that, far from disheartened, China will continue to vie for subsequent Olympics because its 1.2 billion people are convinced that their nation can manage the Games with commitment, fairness, flair and supreme hospitality. ''The advancement of China is tantamount to the building of another Great Wall, except this time it is not to keep out foreigners but to invite them in to help improve the lot of a fifth of humanity in the spirit of brotherhood. ''Hong Kong, now and as the Special Administrative Region of China, wishes to greet future Olympians and other guests as one of the truly great cities. Our opportunity will come.''
