Taufik: Lin Dan arrogant

OLYMPIC champion Taufik Hidayat has launched an extraordinary attack on China’s world No 1 Lin Dan, calling him arrogant and widely disliked by other players. 

Taufik, the defending Asian Games champion, also announced that Doha would be his last Asiad. 

BAD BOYS OF BADMINTON: China's world champion Lin Dan (left) is arrogant andother players feel the same way, says Athens Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayatof Indonesia (right). – AFPpic

“I don’t like Lin Dan,” he said here. “He’s just a good player – off the courts I don’t think he’s a good person. Many players don’t like Lin Dan. He’s arrogant and he doesn’t talk to you. 

“I know he’s a good player, yes, he’s the world No 1, but he’s not nice to other players.” 

Taufik has the reputation of being the bad boy of badminton, with a history of temper tantrums. 

But Indonesia’s top player, fettered as a superstar at home and married to a daughter of the chairman of the nation’s sports committee, insists he is misunderstood. 

“People keep asking if I’m a bad boy and I say no, I’m not,” the 25-year-old said.  

“I think it’s funny – I don’t think I am.” 

At the last Asian Games four years ago in Busan, he held up the showpiece team final for two hours, throwing down his racquet and walking off, upset over a line call.  

Officials and teammates had to coax him back onto court, before South Korea went on to down the Indonesians. 

A Taufik storm threatened again in August in South Korea, when, annoyed by line calls, he considered quitting a match. 

He went one step further in Hong Kong a month later, picking up his bags in an apparent protest over the calls and walking out of his quarter-final against Lin Dan after only five points. 

He was docked five world rankings as punishment, but remained unrepentant, calling on the sport’s governing body to modernise the game and install cameras to eliminate such controversies. 

Taufik has been sidelined with a back injury for much of this year but is again finding his form. 

“I won the gold medal at the Busan Games and I hope to win it again at these Asian Games,” said Taufik, the 2005 world champion.  

“This will be the last Asian Games for me, I’m getting too old.” 

Taufik defeated India’s Anup Sridhar in the first singles match in the men’s team badminton on Thursday, helping Indonesia to a 5-0 win.  

The men’s singles event begins on Dec 5. – AFP