Just incredible, how much Setiawan resembles Roger Federer. So smooth and elegant, he makes it look so easy. Just like Federer does in Tennis. Plus they both break every longevity record there is and are beloved by the fans around the world. They even behave pretty similar, very calm and focussed on court, just occasionally showing emotions. Lets hope, they keep playing for a few more years.
he won it in his early prime when he was an indonesia citizen... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Gunawan#Asian_Championships
I think Park Joo Bong (2 WC, One Olympics Gold, 1 silver) should be on the list with Tony Gunawan and Hendra. I am not sure about the other 2 you mentioned though. LYD is no doubt a legend himself, but he's not in the same tier like those 3. No WC and Olympics Gold compare to other greats. And if people argue about his consistency and titles won, then Sukamuljo had achieved in shorter period of time what LYD achieved his whole career (superseries titles, longest reign WR no 1, etc2) FHF is still 50/50 for me, two consecutive Olympics Gold no one can match that achievement. But arguably, his partners (Cai Yun & Zhang Nan) are a better player than him during their partnership period. He was the best smasher in MD history though, proven in the circuit and not some fake closed door test.
One could argue too that FHF was a back court player while the others are front court players. I don't know how much this could contribute to the discussion.
If you argue that FHF's partner were better than him, then you cant really talk about individual players in doubles whatsoever. CY didnt achieve anything noteworthy outside of his partnership with FHF, ZN won 1 WC and hasnt done anything at all since then. If they were so much better and FHF was just good, not exceptional, they wouldve succeeded in other partnerships as well. They didnt. It's the same argument that applies to Hendra, really - their continued success in different partnerships is proof they are indeed exceptional players, and didnt just happen to have a much stronger partner or one inexplicably magical partnership. Oh, same goes for Tony Gunawan, btw. Could play well with almost anyone. While that WC title with Bach was something of a fluke, he was very good with both Halim Haryanto and Candra Wijaya (and Bach being a mediocre player wasnt his fault, he still played well in that chapter of his career). While that is often the case, its not a universal law or rule. The back court player has to set up the front guy as well, if he's a bad player, he wont do that successfully (see Liu/Zhang...). Ask former players what it was like playing vs Fu, they wont tell you "he got carried, mate". PS: if you watch Fu/Zhang at the 2014 DO or Olympics, or Cai/Fu at the WC or OG tournaments they won, you can hardly argue that Fu was the weaker player. Imop both pairs were very homogenous, not much between players overall (of course each had their individual strengths and weaknesses).
So 1 will at least replaced Kevin with LYD as MD great? On top of that all the silver medals cant beat 1 AG gold.
