Rudy Gunawan - Career

Career

Rudy Gunawan (not to be confused with fellow countryman Tony Gunawan, about eight years his junior) was member of world champion Indonesian Thomas Cup (men's international) teams in 1994 and 1996, winning his final round match on both occasions. He won men's doubles at the 1993 IBF World Championships in Birmingham, England with Ricky Subagja. However, he shared most of his international men's doubles titles with two other fellow countyrmen, Eddy Hartono and Bambang Suprianto. These included the prestgious All-England title in 1992 and 1994, the World Badminton Grand Prix in 1990 and 1993, the Southeast Asian Games in 1991; as well as the Indonesia (1989, 1992, 1995), Dutch (1989, 1991), Singapore (1990), Thailand (1991, 1993), China (1993), Chinese Taipei (1994), and U.S. (1995) Opens. Gunawan was a silver medalist at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona with Eddy Hartono. He also shared a number international mixed doubles titles, including victories at the Indonesia (1990, 1993), Hong Kong (1993), and Polish (1993) Opens, and at the Badminton World Cup three years running (1990, 1991, and 1992).
With Eddy Hartono, they're also the leading doubles team players alongside Park Joo - Bong/Kim Moon - Soo, Li Yong Bo/Tian Bing Yi and Razif Sidek/Jalani Sidek from late 80's to early 90's. During their reign, most of the open titles were shared among them. It was a very rare occasion to see the lower ranked pairs beat them let alone won tournament at that time.