WORLDS 2010 – Taufik troubled but ultimately triumphant

Fifth seed Taufik Hidayat was forced to draw on all his experience in today’s encounter against Taipei’s Yu Hsin Hsieh in the second round of the 2010 Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships.

Article and Interview by Mark Phelan (Live in Paris) Photo: Badmintonphoto.com

Hidayat, who is now the sole remaining Indonesian men’s singles player after the withdrawal of Simon Santoso due to back injury, was taken to three sets by his gutsy opponent.

The Taipei shuttler was first to strike and took the opening set 21-19 which, to many, would send danger signs of a possible upset but not to Taufik Hidayat as the Indonesian has obtained a reputation as the 3-game comeback king in recent years.

All was going according to plan in the second game for Hidayat and leading 19-14 the game appeared to be in the bag. But Yu Hsin Hsieh knew that if he was to win this match he probably needed to do it in 2 games. The Taipai player slowly but surely fought back and somehow levelled the game at 19-19 to send shiverish whispers of a possible upset around the stadium. But Hidayat was in no mood for defeat and found the mental strength to regroup and take the 2 points needed to send the match to a deciding rubber.

In the third, it became clearly obvious early on the Taufik had broken the resolve and spirit of his opponent as the number 5 seed stormed into a 15-4 lead. It was clear that Taufik was not going to allow the deciding game drift away from him and controlled almost every rally to eventually run out a comfortable 21-9 winner.

To hear Hidayat’s post-match exclusive interview click on the video below.

For all results click HERE