FDG Cup lures star Hidayat

Former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat brings his class act to Manila again as he graces the 12th FDG Cup Badminton Championships featuring the country’s top players and a sprinkling of foreign campaigners on July 9 to 12 at Powersmash in Makati and Robinsons Place Manila.

Hidayat, 33, retired last year from competitive play to concentrate on his badminton training center in East Jakarta.

In Manila, he will showcase his skills against some of the country’s aces plus longtime badminton patron and Robinsons Land Corp. president Frederick D. Go, under whose name the annual event is held.

Hidayat, who also competed in a couple of Philippine Opens in the previous decade, dominated the sport in 2004 when he won the Olympic gold in 2004 in Athens and the following year when he snared the world title in Anaheim, California.

The Indonesian star, a two-time Asian Games gold medalist and a six-time Indonesian Open champion, will be joined by Japanese ace Mizuki Fujii in a pair of exhibition matches on July 12.

Meanwhile, the draw date is set on July 2 at 3 p.m. at Holiday Inn Hotel in Pasig City.

Babolat Philippines will provide the official shuttlecocks.