Lilyana Natsir
Liliyana Natsir (born 9 September 1985 in Manado, Indonesia) is a female badminton player from Indonesia who specializes in doubles. With one gold and silver from Olympic Games and three gold medal at BWF World Championships, she is regarded as one of the greatest mixed doubles players in the history. She gained huge success by partnering with two different players. Her current partner is Tontowi Ahmad since 2011, after separating from her previous partner, Nova Widianto. She also won three titles in a row from 2012-2014 at All England Badminton Championships, one of the most prestigious and oldest tournament in the sport. Been entering the top level since 18 years old, her tactical awareness, game vision, and dominance at the front court are considered as one of the best in the tour. In 2016, she and Tontowi Ahmad became the first Indonesian mixed doubles pair to win gold medal at the Olympic Games by beating Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia.
Natsir had dreamed of being a badminton athlete since childhood. She started playing badminton at the age of nine at her local badminton club in Manado. Three years later, she decided to move to Jakarta and entered her youth club, Tangkas Alfamart. She joined the national badminton team of Indonesia in 2002 together with Natalia Poluakan, her longtime friend from Manado. When she and Poluakan won the women's doubles title in Pekan Olahraga Nasional (National Games), Richard Mainaky noticed her game and invited her to play in mixed doubles with Nova Widianto.
In 2006 Natsir and Widianto won the Asian Championships in mixed doubles and four World Grand Prix titles. They won the BWF World Championships in both 2005 and 2007. While Natsir had previously focused on mixed doubles with partner Nova Widianto, in 2007 she began playing women's doubles with Vita Marissa. In the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, Natsir and Marissa won the gold medal in women's doubles, defeating their Indonesian teammates Jo Novita and Greysia Polii in straight sets. They also helped the Indonesian women's team win the team gold medal at the games. In the beginning of 2009 Marissa resigned from national team. When this decision came out, Marissa and Natsir had to split up and each focus on their own career. One year later, in September 2010, the badminton world was surprised by the sudden split of world number #1 mixed-doubles pair Widianto and Natsir. In total, Nova and Liliyana had clinched two World Championship gold medals and 14 titles all together, and were still at world #1 when the decision was announced. Since then Lilyana has paired with the younger player Tontowi Ahmad in mixed doubles.
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