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Nathan and Gail back with a bang

by Jonathan Overend - Five Live tennis correspondent (U8477262) 12 August 2008

Wow - who would have thought so much fun could be had with a shuttlecock.

Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson, the stars of British badminton, became the first members of Team GB to truly silence a Chinese crowd with their astonishing comeback win over number two seeds Gao Ling and Zheng Bo.

If they'd have lost, the Athens silver medallists' Olympics would have been over at the first post, as well as Emms's career - she has said she will retire after Beijing. Instead, the whole draw has now opened up for them.

They did it in wonderful, gritty fashion, coming from 17-12 down in the final game (first to 21) to snatch a dramatic victory and on Thursday, they'll face unseeded Lee and Lee from Korea for a place in the semi-finals and the shot at a medal.

After unexpectedly gripping the nation four years ago, Robertson and Emms look set to do the same over the next few days.

There were turbulent emotions inside the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium and the desertion of the crowd was as much a story as the match itself.

At the height of Britain's domination - 8-3 up in the second game having won the first - the crowd almost fell silent.

Then they spotted a lanky Danish player doing well on the adjacent court and they decided to cheer him for a bit.

At this point Zheng Bo, the weak link of the quartet for much of the match, was getting a verbal bashing from his experienced partner.

Gao Ling, a double gold medallist from Sydney and Athens, definitely wears the trousers in their relationship.

All of which left Robertson and Emms in a confident - therefore dangerous - position. Almost inevitably China started the comeback, levelling the match and taking a commanding lead in the decider.

They led 17-12 and, hardly surprisingly, the crowd were back onside. But Robertson in particular seemed to discover a second wind and the force of his smashes from midcourt, to win the two decisive points from 19-19, blew him over the finishing line.

We were live with commentary on 5Live on a breakthrough day, which also featured first-time commentaries on judo and canoe slalom.

This is what the Olympic Games is all about and it will feel a bit strange to watch millionaires shrug their shoulders at the concrete muddle of a tennis centre on Wednesday.

More badminton on Thursday? Yes please, when's the bus leaving?

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comment by Vaughan_the_Prawn (U12841610)

posted Aug 12, 2008

Loved the match, one of the highlights of the games for me. The crowd may have been silenced for a bit, but for me the fact that it was held in a country where badminton is a popular sport made it all the better. Congrats to them both.

PS: Please can we not start the whole Murray/Henman thing on this blog, hundreds of vicious posts on that elsewhere, let's enjoy the fact that this sport is in the limelight for once.

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comment by sja_avfc (U9522786)

posted Aug 12, 2008

what a corker! these two have a nack of producing nail biting matches. i thought it was going to end up like it did four years ago, where they came so very close, but fortunately they did it! i was ecstatic!

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comment by Vaughan_the_Prawn (U12841610)

posted Aug 12, 2008

Not much point in asking us to comment if it takes over an hour to moderate it... not as if the comments are flooding into this article anyway (15 in 2hrs)! Think I'll stick to commenting on the blogs in future.

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comment by Swansea_city_no10 (U12985134)

posted Aug 12, 2008

Fantastic match. I thought they were out of it at 17-12 to be honest but what a brilliant comeback , lets hope that they go all the way now and get the gold for team GB. P.s Gail Emms is hot.

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comment by KingyNigeria (U12992263)

posted Aug 13, 2008

fabulous result.. unfortunately here in Nigeria they dont show much badminton, err they would rather show a two year old football match between chelsea and fulham so i made do with watching a 15 second delayed score board on the official site tick over. Even that was nerve racking. Well done. I just hope they can get themselves up for the next matches. They have the talent to pretty much take out everyone else in the draw no problems. I hope thier coach is pumping and winding them up. Win 3 more matches and their names will be imbedded in history. Maybe MK will give them the freedom of the town ?

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comment by MKAI200 (U12972224)

posted Aug 13, 2008

What a win yesterday for the Gb duo. With the second seeds now beaten, GB can be pretty confident on getting a medal. Watch out for the chinese who beat the other GB pair

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comment by Aquila (At it again eh Ed?) (U11180666)

posted Aug 13, 2008

WOW ANOTHER post by a paid Beeb journalist gets Manager's pick.

More biased than a Chinese boxing judge.

Given recent complaints upheld regarding faking and fixing of competitions, you might expect a les closed shop.

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comment by fringebhoy (U11888519)

posted Aug 13, 2008

Anyone else annoyed with Matthew Pinsentt's build up tot he last game.....'we going the game with the brits 17-12 in arrears'.......WTF!!!! how poncy does that sound, He was at the effing 10m pistol the other day, what the hell does he know about badminton!?!?! could they not have paid for Simon archer or Jo Goode to go out and do the badminton bit?

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comment by Colin Morris's Perm (U13006730)

posted Aug 13, 2008

Agree with all blogs commenting on how great it is to see badminton on telly again. What a rollercoaster that last match was. I couldn't believe the comeback, I thought the Chinese pair had got our two sussed. Thought Emms was great with encouragement saying "come on" really positively when the chips were down. Just hoping they can do one better than in Athens and snatch the big G.

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