Marcus Fernaldi Gideon

Gideon started his career in badminton at the Tangkas Jakarta club when he was 9 years old. At the age of 13, he began practicing professionally, and at the same time, he received a scholarship in Singapore. Four months later in Singapore, he returned to Indonesia because of illness, and decided not to continue his education abroad. He was again trained by his father, as a singles and doubles player.[9] Gideon won his first international title in the men's singles discipline at the Victorian International a Future Series event.[10]

Gideon was selected to join the national training centre in Cipayung, in the men's doubles team in 2010. Partnered with Agripina Prima Rahmanto, he won the 2011 Singapore and 2012 Iran International tournaments,[11] and also finished as the runners-up in 2012 Vietnam and Osaka International. Feeling disappointed with the PBSI decision in the sending players to the international tournaments, Gideon decided to leave the national training centre in 2013.[9][11]

Gideon then returned to the court as an independent player paired with the Beijing 2008 gold medalists, Markis Kido. The duo reaching to the semifinals at the 2013 Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold losing to the national player Ronald Alexander and Selvanus Geh in straight games.[12] He captured his first Superseries title at the 2013 French Open with Kido, played from the qualification stage, and beat the seeded pairs in their journey to topped the men's doubles podium.[13] Gideon and Kido, reached in to the semifinals at the 2014 All England Open, and then won their second title at the 2014 Indonesia Masters defeat another Indonesian players Selvanus Geh and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the final with the rubber games.[9][14]

Seeing his achievements with Markis Kido, Gideon invited by PBSI to rejoin the national team.[11] In early 2015, he is paired with Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, ended the years by occupying the top 20 BWF World Ranking, grabbed one title at the Chinese Taipei Masters.[15] He also participated at the Southeast Asian Games, clinched the gold medal in the men's team event and a silver medal in the men's doubles event.[16] Gideon and Sukamuljo started their 2016 tour by winning the Malaysia Masters,[17] their performance continues to increase and won the Superseries title in India and Australia, after that the Superseries Premier title in China.[18] At the end of 2016, he and Sukamujo reach to the top 10 world ranking, and qualified to compete at the BWF Superseries Finals held in Dubai. The duo failed to advance to the knocked out stage after stand in the third position in group stage won a match against their compatriot Angga Pratama / Ricky Karanda Suwardi, and lost two matches to Danish and Japanese pairs.[19]

In 2019, Gideon and Sukamuljo were nominated for the Best Male Player award, but failed to retain the award after being defeated by Kento Momota.[20]

Gideon is the son of former national badminton player, Kurniahu.[21] He married a general practitioner, Agnes Amelinda Mulyadi on 14 April 2018.[22] His first son Marcus Fernaldi Gideon Jr. was born in January 2019.[23]

• BWF Best Male Players of the Year (with Sukamuljo): 2017,[5] 2018[6]
• Indonesian Sport Awards (with Sukamuljo):
  • Favorite Male Duo: 2018[24]
  • Athlete of the Year: 2018[25]
• Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list for Entertainment and Sports (with Sukamuljo): 2020[26]

Men's doubles results against World Tour Level 2–4 finalist, World Tour Finals semifinalists, World Superseries finalists, World Superseries Finals semifinalists, World Championships semifinalists, and Olympic quarterfinalists paired with:[30]

Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo

Markis Kido

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marcus Fernaldi Gideon.

• Marcus Fernaldi Gideon at BWF.tournamentsoftware.com