Liliyana Natsir

They ended a 12-year title drought in the mixed doubles and becoming the second Indonesia pair to win the title, after Christian Hadinata and Imelda Wiguno in 1980.

A month later, they cliched home soil title, the Indonesia Open.

Liliyana Natsir (born 9 September 1985) is an Indonesian former badminton player who specialized in doubles.

She is one of the standout front court player, with dexterousness and skill in controlling and executing the shuttlecock.

Natsir has tremendous record over more than two decade by winning a gold and a silver from the Olympic Games, and four gold medals at the BWF World Championships.

Her achievements are recognized worldwide, and was inducted in the BWF Hall of Fame in 2022.

Natsir was ranked world number 1 in the mixed doubles with two different partner.

Natsir was the second Indonesian woman Olympic gold medalist, after Susi Susanti in 1992, and is later succeeded by Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in 2021.

As a Tangkas player, Natsir started to rise in the women's doubles when she and her partner Natalia Christine Poluakan won some several national tournaments in 2000.

She first entered the international stage at the 2001 Asian Junior Championships in Taipei Taiwan, where she and her teammates won the bronze medal in the girls' team event.

She played at her first Indonesia Open with Poluakan, but the duo was stopped in the first round.

Natsir and Poluakan then took the victory at the Indonesian Junior National Championships, led her to join the national training center.

She joined the national badminton team of Indonesia in 2002 together with Natalia Christine 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.

Partnered with Markis Kido, she won the mixed doubles title at the 2002 Asian Junior Championships.

She also claimed three bronze medals in the mixed team, girls' doubles and mixed doubles at the World Junior Championships.

In 2003, Natsir focused on playing in the women's doubles.

She started her journey in the IBF Grand Prix event with partner Eny Erlangga, but the duo did not gave a satisfactory results since they only finished the tournaments in the early round.

Natsir also made her debut at the World Championships with Devi Sukma Wijaya, but was stopped in the second round.

In December, Natsir took part at the 2003 SEA Games in Vietnam, and won a silver in the women's doubles and a bronze in the team event.

From January to October 2004, Natsir competed in the women's doubles with different partners; Poluakan, Erlangga, Rintan Apriliana, and Greysia Polii.

She was able to go further when paired with Polii, when the duo finished as quarter-finalist in the Malaysia Open.

Natsir then competed in the Pekan Olahraga Nasional, where she and her partner, Poluakan, won a gold medal for their hometown of North Sulawesi.

Indonesia mixed doubles coach, Richard Mainaky noticed her talent and invited Natsir to play in the mixed doubles.

She then made her debut in the mixed doubles with Nova Widianto and reached the semi-finals in the China Open.

A week later, Natsir claimed her first Grand Prix title in the Singapore Open, beating the Malaysian pair Koo Kien Keat and Wong Pei Tty with a landslide score of 15–1 and 15–4.

Together with Nova Widianto, she won the gold medal at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships; 2006 World Cup; 2006 Asian Championships; and a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Natsir was then paired with Tontowi Ahmad and the two quickly established a strong partnership.

Natsir encountered half of the 2005 season without any titles.

However, Natsir and Widianto contend the international stage by reaching the finals in the Swiss Open; semi-finals in the Korea and All England Opens; and quarter-finals in the Japan, Singapore, and the Malaysia Opens.

She also took part in the Sudirman Cup, where Indonesia team finished as finalists against China.

In August, Natsir and Widianto secured the gold at the World Championships over China's up and coming Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen.

In December, Natsir and Widianto won the gold medal in the SEA Games, and ended the 2005 season by winning a silver medal in the World Cup.

Among her achievements is her three back-to-back titles from the 2012–2014 All England Open; and in 2016, she and Ahmad became the first Indonesian mixed doubles pair to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

She holds the highest number of BWF World Championship titles for mixed doubles.

Natsir had dreamed of being a badminton athlete since childhood.

She started playing badminton at the age of nine at her local badminton club, PB Pisok, in Manado.

Three years later, she decided to move to Jakarta and entered her youth club, Tangkas Alfamart.

The duo clinched the BWF World Championships title in 2013 and 2017; won the 2015 Asian Championships; and also the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Natsir and Ahmad topped the mixed doubles world ranking on 3 May 2018.