Early life
Apriyani Rahayu was born in Lawulo village, a remote settlement in Konawe Regency in Southeast Sulawesi. She is the youngest child of an agricultural worker named Ameruddin Pora and his wife, Sitti Jauhar. [11] As a child Rahayu would fight with neighborhood boys, and her father encouraged her to devote her energy to badminton instead, which she agreed to. According to Rahayu's cousin, her father served as her trainer, with a training regimen including running 10 kilometers to competitions and practicing on a homemade court behind his house lined with areca nut trees. Pora was self-sufficient but poor. Rahayu used a homemade wooden racquet with fishing line for string, until her father was able to sell enough vegetables to buy a real racquet. [12] [13] However, Pora himself credits Rahayu's mother as providing her with support and training. Sitti Jauhar was an enthusiastic player of badminton, table tennis and volleyball and encouraged Rahayu to be tough and competitive. [14] In 2007, at the age of 9, she represented Konawe Regency in a regional competition. In 2011, at the age of 13, she was scouted by Yuslan Kisra who brought her in contact with Icuk Sugiarto who recruited her to his club PB Pelita Bakri (now ISTC) and later on PB Jaya Raya Jakarta for international level play. [15] [16] Sitti Jauhar died in 2015 while Apriyani was at a championship in Peru, but she played through after hearing the news, winning two medals.
Career
Junior career
Practiced at the Pelita Bakrie club, Rahayu was able to excel in national junior tournaments, so that she and her partner, Jauza Fadhila Sugiarto, were able to top the U17 girls' doubles national rankings in 2013. At the beginning of 2013, Rahayu was also called to train at the national training center, but the club had not given permission yet. [17] In 2014, Rahayu and Sugiarto managed to win the Jaya Raya Junior International tournament in August. [18] Then at the World Junior Championships, she won the silver medal partnering Rosyita Eka Putri Sari. [17] [19]
In 2015, Rahayu won the bronze medals in the Asian and World Junior Championships in the mixed doubles event partnered with Fachryza Abimanyu. [20] [21] At the age of 17, Rahayu also managed to win the women's doubles international senior title in Singapore with Sugiarto, [22] and finished as mixed doubles runner-up in the Indonesia International Series with Panji Akbar Sudrajat. [23]
In 2016, Rahayu who was paired with Rinov Rivaldy in the mixed doubles won the bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships. [24] They then clinched a Junior Grand Prix title in the Jaya Raya Junior International tournament. [25] At the Indonesia International Series in Surabaya, Rahayu claimed double title by winning the mixed and women's doubles event. [26]
2017: French Open and Thailand Open title
In May, Rahayu partnered with her senior and mentor Greysia Polii, and they competed as a new pair at the Sudirman Cup in Gold Coast, Australia. [27] Even though they had only been paired for about a month, the duo won their first title in the Thailand Open after defeating the home pair Chayanit Chaladchalam and Phataimas Muenwong in straight games 21–12, 21–12 in the final. [28] They also won the Superseries title at the French Open, just five months into their partnership. [29] Other achievements by Polii and Rahayu in 2017 were runner-up in Hong Kong, [30] semi-finalists in New Zealand, [31] and quarter-finalists in Korea Open. [32] Rahayu also helped the Indonesia women's team win the bronze medal at the SEA Games held in Kuala Lumpur, [33] In the individual women's doubles event, she and Polii lost in the first round to eventual champion Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand. [34] The Polii and Rahayu partnership, first paired in May, reached a career high as world number 10 in the BWF World rankings in November. [35]
2018: India Open and third Thailand Open title
In January, Rahayu and Polii began the season by finishing as runners-up in the Indonesia Masters, losing to second seeded Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi in the final. [36] A month later, the duo played as the third seeds in the India Open and won the title after beating the first-seeded Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl in the semi-finals, and the second-seeded Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai in the final. [37] She featured in the Indonesian women's team that won bronze at the Asia Team Championships held in Alor Setar and were quarter-finalists in the Uber Cup in Bangkok. [38] [39] In July, she and her partner lost in the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Open to Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota, [40] but a week later, she won her second Thailand Open title, as she and Polii defended the title they had won in Thailand the previous year, when the event was known as the Grand Prix. [41] In August, Rahayu and Polii won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Nanjing, [42] and further bronze medals at the Asian Games in the women's doubles and team events. [8] [43] In the remainder of the 2018 tour, she and Polii only reached the semi-finals in Japan, China, Denmark, French, Hong Kong, and quarter-finals in the Fuzhou China Open. [44] [45] The duo achieved their career high as world number 3 in the BWF rankings in September. [46]
2019: Second India Open title, first SEA Games gold
Rahayu opened the 2019 season as a finalist in the Malaysia Masters with Polii. [47] In the semi-finals, they beat their arch-rivals Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi in a close rubber game, improving their head-to-head record against the Japanese pair to 2–8. [48] [49] A week later, they again lost to Matsutomo and Takahashi in the Indonesia Masters. They led 18–10 in the first game, but lost it 20–22, eventually losing the match in a close rubber game. [50] In March, she and Polii lost in the quarter-finals of both the German and All England Open. [51] [52] Polii and Rahayu then clinched their second India Open title defeating Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Meng Yean in the final. [53] In May, she alongside the Indonesia team finished as semi-finalists in the Sudirman Cup in Nanning, settling for the bronze medal. [54] In June, she and Polii advanced to the semi-finals of the Australian Open after beating the first seeded, world number one Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara in the quarter-finals, but the duo were beaten by Chinese pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, the fifth defeat in seven meetings between them. [55] At the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, she and her partner won the bronze medal, after defeat in the semi-finals to eventual champions Matsumoto and Nagahara. [56] After the World Championships, her coach, Eng Hian, evaluated that she and Rahayu had fallen short of their previous standard. In the end of 2019 season, their best results were only the semi-finalists in Chinese Taipei Open, after that, they often lost in the initial stage. [57] She finally won her first women's doubles gold medal at the SEA Games. She and Polii defeated Chayanit Chaladchalam and Phataimas Muenwong of Thailand 21–3, 21–18. [34]
2021–2022: Olympic Games gold medal and new partner
Rahayu returned in the international competitions at the 2020 Asian Leg tournament in January 2021. Together with Polii, she won her first ever BWF Super 1000 tournament, the Yonex Thailand Open. [62] A week later in the semi-finals of the Toyota Thailand Open, Rahayu and Polii fell in two games to Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan of South Korea. [63] The duo then played at the World Tour Finals, but was eliminated in the group stage. [64]
In March 2021, Rahayu scheduled to participating at the All England Open, but later Indonesia team were forced to withdraw from the competition by BWF after the team members will self-isolate for 10 days from the date of their inbound flight after an anonym person traveling onboard tested positive for COVID-19. [65]
On 2 August 2021, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics she partnered with Greysia Polii in the women's doubles. In the finals they defeated 2017 world champion Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan. They became the first unseeded pair to win the gold medal in women's doubles. This was Indonesia's first Olympic gold in women's doubles. [66] [67] She and Polii are the third and fourth Indonesian women to win Olympic gold after Susi Susanti in 1992 and Liliyana Natsir in 2016. [68] Rahayu and Polii's win made Indonesia the only country outside of China to have won gold medals in all five disciplines of Badminton at the Summer Olympics. [69] After her Olympic success, the Student Sports Training Center in Jakarta was named after her and Greysia Polii. [70]
In September–October 2021, Rahayu alongside the Indonesian team competed at the 2021 Sudirman Cup in Vantaa, Finland. She played two match in the group stage against Canada and Denmark. Indonesia advanced to the knockout stage but lost at the quarterfinals against Malaysia. [71] In November 2021, Rahayu and Polii lost the finals of the 2021 Indonesia Open. [72]
In May 2022, at the 2021 SEA Games, she started her journey with new partner, Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti. The duo clinched the gold medal in the women's doubles after beating the Thai pair of Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard in the final. [10] This new pair immediately showed satisfying results, by winning the Malaysia and Singapore Opens, [73] [74] and became finalists in the Indonesia Masters. [75]
2023: World Champions silver and first ever Indonesian women's doubles to win the Hong Kong Open
In the first half of 2023 season, Rahayu, who competed on the BWF Tour together with Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, was unable to win a single title. Their best performance were reaching the semi-finals at the Malaysia Open in January, and at the Swiss Open in March. [76] [77] In both tournaments, they were unable to finish the match due to injury. In Malaysia, her partner, Ramadhanti suffered a right ankle injury; [76] and then in Switzerland, Rahayu suffered a right shoulder injury. [77] In addition, they became quarter-finalists in the Indonesia Masters, [78] All England Open, [79] Malaysia Masters, [80] and at the Indonesia Open. [81] The poor record experienced by Rahayu and Ramadhanti were when they lost in the early rounds at the Asian Championships in Dubai, to Thai pair Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard, [82] in the Thailand and Singapore Opens to Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi. [83] [84] Rahayu also join national team to compete at the Asia Mixed Team Championships and Sudirman Cup, but the teams stopped in the quarter-finals to South Korea and China respectively. [85] [86] The Rahayu-Ramadhanti partnership then reached their career high as world number 4 in the BWF ranking which was released on 18 April 2023. [87]
In August, Rahayu and Ramadhanti reached the final at the World Championships in Copenhagen. The duo won a silver medal after being defeated by 1st seed Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in straight games. [9] The duo then won their first ever title of the year in the Hong Kong Open, [88] and made a history as the first ever women's doubles from Indonesia to win the Hong Kong Open title since the inception in 1982. [89] She then made her second appearance at the Asian Games in 2022 Hangzhou, but unable to win any medals in both women's doubles and team events. [90] [91] [92] She suffered a right calf injury while competing in the individual event, and decided to retire from the competition. [90]
2024
She was selected as a member of the Indonesian women's team at the Uber Cup in May, and made history by reaching the final at the Uber Cup since 2008. In the final Indonesia lost to China 0–3. [93]
