Why they rank here
The finest men's doubles player of his generation, Fu Haifeng powered China's dominance with the hardest smash the sport had seen — his 332 km/h effort at the 2005 Sudirman Cup stood as a world record and helped define the modern power-doubles era. Partnering Cai Yun, he won Olympic gold at London 2012 and four World Championships (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011), a men's doubles record, then added a second Olympic gold at Rio 2016 alongside Zhang Nan, aged 32. A left-handed rear-court hitter of terrifying force, he anchored multiple Thomas Cup and Sudirman Cup-winning Chinese teams across a 16-year career. Fu proved that doubles could be as thrilling and as decorated as singles, and his blistering attack reshaped how the discipline was played, making the flat, fast, downward game the template for every top pairing that followed.
Career profile
Each bar shows how this athlete compares with the strongest in our all-time list for that metric.