Taufik Hidayat
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| Olympic medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's badminton | |||
| Gold | 2004 Athens | Singles | |
Taufik Hidayat (born August 10, 1981) is a badminton player from Indonesia. He is a former world champion and the current Olympic champion in the men's singles. He also won the Indonesian Open six times (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006).
Hidayat played badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men' singles, defeating Hidetaka Yamada of Japan and Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals, Hidayat defeated Peter Gade of Denmark 15-12, 15-12. Hidayat advanced to the semifinals, in which he beat Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 15-9, 15-2. Playing in the gold medal match, he defeated Korean Shon Seung Mo 15-8, 15-7 to win the gold medal.
In August 2005, he defeated world number one Lin Dan of China, 15-3, 15-7 in the men's singles final of The IBF World Championship. He is the only male player to date to have won gold medals in both the Olympics and the World Championships.
He married the daughter of Agum Gumelar, chairman of Indonesia's National Sports Committee (KONI), on 4 February 2006 at the Mulia Hotel in Jakarta. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla acted as witnesses during the solemnisation.
[edit] Player Attributes
(BN) Taufik is perhaps the world's most spontaneously innovative badminton singles player today. Unlike the machine-type play adopted by Chinese players like Lin Dan (much like Ivan Lendl's tennis style), Taufik plays a natural game, full of grace, anticipation, freshness and risks. He is the only first-rung player who retains the 15-point style of play in the revised, current 21 point system.
Taufik's strengths lie primarily in his powerful backhand, his tapped forehand drop shot and tantalising net-play. His weaknesses, if they could be called so, lie is his reluctance to kill from high forehand clears, his impatience with loud crowds and his penchant for returning a net dribble with a net dribble, even when the opponent is dangerously close to the net.
China's coach Li Yongbo, who famously said in Doha (Asian Games, December 2006) that 'Taufik is finished' had to eat his words barely a few hours later after the Indonesian pulled off a seemingly casual win against China's Lin Dan, his greatest rival and Yongbo's protege.
In many ways, Taufik's style mirrors the prowling athleticism of one of the greatest players ever to grace the badminton court - Zhao Jianhua. Like Zhao, Taufik looks lazy, moves lazily and wins lazily. But, except when he is annoyed or distracted, Taufik (like Zhao) is anything but lazy. The tactician in him is better than the athlete in him. This is probably why he makes more unforced errors than any other player at his level of ability and skill. (BN)
Hidayat is known for his relaxed smooth playing style and is one of the best all round players in the world. According to many players he has the ability to win against any player in the world when he really sets his mind to it. On the other hand he can lose to lower ranked players when he is not completely focused. His lack of consistency and mental fortitude are often points of criticism. Because of this reputation, many fans believe that if Taufik loses a match to any player it is as much because he didn't care enough as that he was truly beaten. Taufik publicly stated in 2006 that Lin Dan is the best player ever in the world but also described him as being arrogant widely disliked other players. [1] (Taufik was defeated three times by Lin Dan in 2006, at the Thomas Cup semi-final tie, Japan Open final and the Hong Kong Open where Taufik forfeited the match after what he thought was a bad line call at 4-1 to Lin in the first game. Taufik defeated Lin Dan in the final of the 2006 Asian Games individual event on December 9 after losing to him in the team event semi-final and dedicated the sweet victory to his father-in-law and chief of the national sports council, Agum Gumelar.[2])
