Anthony Ginting: The top hope to return Olympic badminton glory to Indonesia

Anthony Sinisuka Ginting will be the highest seeded Indonesian men's singles badminton player at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021.

The 24-year-old is looking forward to making his Olympic debut in Tokyo for what will be the biggest tournament of his career to-date.

Ginting, who rose as high as third in the world rankings just before the global pandemic hit in early 2020, will be joined by compatriot Jonatan Christie in a bid to reclaim the men's singles crown for Indonesia at Tokyo 2020.

Reclaiming Indonesia's glory

When badminton officially joined the Olympic programme at the Barcelona 1992 Games, the very first gold medal awarded in the sport went to Indonesia, thanks to Susi Susanti who clinched victory in the finals of the women's singles.

Her future husband, Alan Budi Kusuma, then became the first men's singles player to win the Olympic title, doubling the nation's gold medal haul. Kusuma defeated compatriot Ardy Wiranata in an all-Indonesian final, symbolic of the nation's dominance in the discipline at the time.

However, things subsequently took a turn, with no men's singles player making the podium at Atlanta 1996. Hendrawan came close to making amends for his nation at Sydney 2000 when he made the finals, but fell short against China's Ji Xinpeng.

Taufik Hidayat managed to restore Indonesian pride when he clinched gold at Athens 2004 with compatriot Sony Dwi Kuncoro taking home bronze.

But no men's singles player from the South East Asian nation has stood on the podium at the Olympics since, with the last three editions of the Games dominated by Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and China's Lin Dan as well as Chen Long.

Ginting's climb to the top

At a time when Indonesia's men's singles players were fading into the background, Ginting and Christie emerged as the new wave of talent and were rising up the world rankings swiftly.

By 2017 Ginting had won his first international title, the Korea Open and a year later he had broken into the top 10 of the world rankings. His close friend and roommate while on tour is sometimes also one of his greatest rival out on court. Christie and Ginting have walked almost a similar journey to the pinnacle of badminton and have helped push each other to achieve greater results.

The two have not had the benefit of having other senior singles players within the national team to look up to, so as Ginting puts it, "we have to work hard together and fight to rise together"

Ready for the Olympic challenge

For the first time since London 2012, Indonesia will be represented by two men's singles players at the upcoming Games in Tokyo.

Ginting is well aware of what is expected of him sharing that, "my seniors all reached a very high level in the sport at the Olympics, Asian Games and many other tournaments."

Ginting has already had a taste of Olympic glory having won bronze at the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games. As he heads into his Olympics debut with the expectation of over 270 million people weighing on his shoulder, he has shown great maturity in being able to deal with the pressure.