Taufik haunted by back injury, title unsure
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Open defending champion Taufik Hidayat may lose his chance to retain his title as he is suffering from a back injury.
The official doctor of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI), Michael Triangto, said on Tuesday that Taufik had an X ray but the results "were not very good".
"I recommended him to have another X ray tomorrow and there should be a result in the afternoon," he said in a telephone interview. "Taufik has been complaining about the injury and I think it is the old one that reoccurs from time to time."
Michael said Taufik's injury was most likely muscle strain.
"But we should wait first and look at tomorrow's X ray to decide if it really is muscle strain or if the injury has got something to do with his bones."
Taufik visited orthopedic specialist Dr. Chaehab on Tuesday morning as the doctor was unavailable the day before.
Michael said if Taufik injured his back, he would have to take a month's rest and would not be able to compete in the Indonesia Open.
Separately, PBSI secretary-general Leo Chandra Wiranata said he hoped Taufik was not suffering from a serious injury.
"I saw his practice this morning at the Indonesian Badminton Center in Cipayung, East Jakarta, and I didn't see anything wrong with the way he was playing. I hope his complaint was not about anything serious," he said.
"After practice, Taufik went to visit Dr. Chaehab. Maybe we will need to have a second opinion on his injury."
Leo said if Taufik was injured, PBSI would not force him to compete in the Indonesia Open as the organization prefers the 19- year-old shuttler to concentrate on the Olympic Games in Sydney in September.
"He's one of our backbone players in the Olympics and he has a great chance to reach the finals. Let's hope he's fine," he said.
Taufik, who is a recipient of the Olympics Solidarity scholarship, won the Indonesia Open title in Bali last year after beating senior Budi Santoso in the all Indonesian final.
With the participation of current world number one Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark, former world champion Sun Jun and teammate Chen Hong of China, Malaysian Ong Ewe Hock and senior Hendrawan and Marlev Mainaky of Indonesia, Taufik is expected to retain his title.
Taufik is also scheduled to compete in the Malaysian Open next month to improve his world ranking by trying to enter the top four for the Olympics. He is now in the world number seven position.
Speaking on the Indonesia Open, Leo said the quality of this year's event would be much better than last year's with the participation of more countries, especially China and South Korea.
"I think China prefers to send a bigger team to Thailand Open (starting on Wednesday) before grooming the shuttlers in their camp prior to the Olympics," he said. (yan)