Hendri Kurniawan Saputra (born 12 May 1981) is an Indonesian-born Singaporean retired

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player.

Career

Saputra and his brother, Hendra Wijaya, joined the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) in 2000 and both became Singapore citizens after five years. He won a silver medal, along with his brother and also partner, Hendra Wijaya, in the men's doubles, and bronze with Li Yujia in the mixed doubles at the

2007 Southeast Asian Games The 2007 Southeast Asian Games ( th, กีฬาแห่งเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ 2007, Kila haeng echiye tawan oak chiyeng tai 2007), officially known as the 24th Southeast Asian Games, was a South ...

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population ...

. Saputra represented

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

, where he competed in the mixed doubles. Playing with Li Yujia, he defeated Kenya's Victor Odera and Irene Kerimah, Canada's

Mike Beres Mike Beres (born May 13, 1973) is a male badminton player from Canada, who won the bronze medal in the men's doubles competition at the 1999 Pan American Games. He was born in Brantford, Ontario. 2001 (and 2007) he won the Boston Bad ...

and

Valerie Loker Valérie "Val" Loker (born May 1, 1980) is a Canadian badminton player. She won a silver medal, along with her partner Mike Beres in the mixed doubles at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, against the winning U.S. pair Howard ...

, and Australia's

Travis Denney Travis Denney (born 19 February 1976) is a male badminton player from Australia. Denney competed in badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's doubles with partner Ashley Brehaut. They were defeated in the round of 32 by Pramote Teerawiw ...

and

Kate Wilson-Smith Kate Nicole Wilson-Smith (born 9 January 1979) is a female badminton player from Australia. Wilson-Smith competed in badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics in women's doubles with partner Jane Crabtree. They were defeated by Pernille Harder ...

in the preliminary rounds, before losing out the semi-final match to English pair

Nathan Robertson Nathan James Robertson (born 30 May 1977) from Cotgrave in Nottinghamshire is a retired English badminton player who has achieved international success in both the men's events and the mixed doubles event. He was educated at Dayncourt School Sp ...

and

Gail Emms Gail Elizabeth Emms Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 23 July 1977) is a retired English badminton player who has achieved international success in doubles tournaments. A badminton player since the age of four, Emms was first chosen to rep ...

, with a score of 21–19, 14–21, and 17–21. Despite their semi-final loss, Saputra and Li managed to beat the neighbouring Malaysian duo Koo Kien Keat and Wong Pei Tty for the bronze medal victory, attaining a three-set score of 21–14, 21–23, and 21–6. Saputra also qualified for the

mixed doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by placing thirteenth and granting an entry as one of the top 15 seeded teams from the

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international governing body for the sport of badminton recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was founded in 1934 as the International Badminton Federation (IBF) with nine member ...

's ranking list. Playing with Li Yujia for the second time, Saputra lost the preliminary round match to Danish pair and European champions

Thomas Laybourn Thomas Laybourn (born 30 September 1977) is a retired badminton player from Denmark. He is a World Champion, two times European Champion and was ranked as world number 1 in the mixed doubles in January 2011. Career Laybourn won the 2006 Eur ...

and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, with a score of 12–21 and 14–21. At the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

in Delhi, India, Saputra reunited his partner Hendra Wijaya in the men's doubles. The Singaporean pair defeated Northern Ireland's Matthew Gleave and Tony Stephenson, Isle of Man's Joshua Green and Matthew Wilkinson, and Scotland's Watson Briggs and Paul van Rietvelde in the preliminary rounds, before losing out the semi-final match to Malaysian duo Tan Boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat, with a unanimous score of 11–21 and 8–21. Saputra and Wijaya proceeded to the bronze medal match, where they defeated fellow Singaporean badminton players Derek Wong and

Chayut Triyachart Chayut Triyachart (born 9 October 1989) is a Thai-born Singaporean former badminton player. At the Commonwealth Games, he won a silver medal in the 2014 men's doubles, and two bronze medals in the 2014 mixed team and 2010 mixed doubles. In J ...

for the medal, attaining a score of 23–21 and 21–12. Shortly after his second Commonwealth Games, Saputra and his brother, Hendra Wijaya, announced their resignations from the Singapore national badminton team, citing difficult targets and no positions in the SBA as sparring partners.

References

External links

*
Profile – Team Singapore

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saputra, Hendri 1981 births Living people People from Semarang Sportspeople from Central Java Indonesian male badminton players Indonesian emigrants to Singapore Singaporean male badminton players Badminton players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players of Singapore Badminton players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Singapore Commonwealth Games medallists in badminton Badminton players at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Singapore Competitors at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games Competitors at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games Competitors at the 2009 Southeast Asian Games Southeast Asian Games silver medalists for Singapore Southeast Asian Games bronze medalists for Singapore Southeast Asian Games medalists in badminton Twin sportspeople Indonesian twins