Emms and Robertson Get Past China, Other Pair Not so Lucky

Hooray! China is beatable after all!

British mixed-duo of Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson triumphed over the team-up of China’s Ling Gao and Bo Zheng and now coursing to the events quarterfinals.

In a very unbelievable turning of the tides, Emms and Robertson, who won the first set but ceded the next, rallied from a 12-17 deficit in the decider round to win the match 21-19. It was a match that really tested their mental composure.

“You have to be pumped,” a victorious Emms said after the match. Against one of the best pairs in badminton, “it was probably the best eight or nine points we have played,” Emms added.

Robertson was unbelievable as well, with an ankle injury plaguing him since the preparations for the Olympics. Revenge was a factor for Robertson, who lost to Gao and her former partner in the Athens Olympics.

The score was leveled at 19-19, but the British mix nailed Gao and Zheng at that and finished the match with two straight points.

Emms and Robertson will face South Korea’s pair of Lee Hyo Jung and Lee Yong Dae in the quarterfinals.

Elsewhere, the British mixed-pair of Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg fell to China’s He Hanbin and Yu Yang, 21-15, 21-8.