Taufik to tie the knot

**ants** · 01-02-2006, 06:46 PM

3rd Jan TheStar

PETALING JAYA: Badminton fans hoping to see Indonesian superstar Taufik Hidayat achieve a rare feat of Olympic, world and All-England badminton titles will have to wait until next year.

The organisers of the All-England have announced that Taufik is skipping the prestigious tournament scheduled for Jan 17-22 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

The reigning Olympic and world champion is giving the four-star tournament a miss to prepare for his wedding. It is the second consecutive year that Taufik is not featuring in the tournament.

His absence will be good news for the Malaysian singles players. Taufik has always been the player to beat when at his best and national number one Lee Chong Wei will certainly be looking at seizing on the opportunity to win his first All-England title.

But there is still a strong field of singles players in the fray, including the top four Chinese players, led by world number one Lin Dan, and Danes Peter-Gade Christensen and Kenneth Jonassen.

Indonesia have decided to leave out their top men's singles players from the All-England, including Manila SEA Games gold medallist Sony Kwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso.

But they will have a formidable line-up for the men's doubles. Speaheading their challenges are current world number one Candra Wijaya-Sigit Budiarto.

The other Indonesian pairs are include Alven Yulianto-Luluk Hadiyanto, Flandy Limpele-Eng Hian and Markis Kidho-Hendra Setiawan.

Besides Chong Wei, the other Malaysian singles players for the All-England are 2003 champion Mohd Hafiz Hashim, Yeoh Kay Bin, Lee Tsuen Seng, Wong Choong Hann and Kuan Beng Hong.