Taufik Hidayat

Taufik Hidayat (born August 10, 1981 in Bandung, West Java) is an Indonesian badminton player. He is a former world champion and a former Olympic champion in men's singles. He has also won the Indonesian Open six times (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006). When he was young, he joined the SGS Club, a badminton club in Bandung, where he trained under Iie Sumirat.
Hidayat won the men's singles competition in badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics. In August 2005, he won the men's singles competition at the IBF World Championships. Popular media has at times focused on the perceived rivalry between Hidayat and Chinese player Lin Dan, referring to the two as "arch rivals".

Hidayat's main qualities are his backhand (as he is perhaps most famous for his backhand smash, revered for its unusually high generation of power) forehand jump smash, drop shot (reverse slice in particular), smooth footwork and deceiving net play. Hidayat's forehand jump smash in the 2006 world championships is currently the fastest smash recorded in single's competition: he recorded 305 km/h in a match against Ng Wei. In 2009, he started competing in world badminton tournaments independently outside the Indonesian national badminton team. This supposedly gives him the freedom to enter only the tournaments he wishes.