Sports story by Vinnie Mitchell, Sun, 22 Jan 2006 04:44:00 GMT


BIRMINGHAM - Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, the Olympic silver medallists, staged one of their famous comebacks as they overcame the Chinese pair of Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen 15-5, 8-15, 15-13 to storm into the semi finals of at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

The Chinese pair had beaten the British duo at the Hong Kong Open a couple of months ago and looked all set to repeat the same performance as they led 8-2 and then 10-6 at one point in the final game. Robertson and Emms never gave up and remained calm throughout to stage a famous comeback.

This win means that they still have the chance to become the first home players in 25 years to successfully defend their All England title. "The girls just didn't get into this match and I just couldn't smash as hard as he did, which made it one of the toughest matches I've ever played in," Robertson said after an exhausting duel. "That was such a relief. I'm sure we can win the title again after that."

The pair could have finished the match off a long time before the final game as they began brilliantly and took the first game in no time. But the Chinese pair fought back hard in the second game and ensured that the third and the final game was a pulsating affair. "It was a fantastic match. At 8-2 down I thought we could be going out but I said to Gail 'we aren't going out playing negatively' so we went for it. We really tried and played with everything. It was all about who wanted it more," Robertson commented.

In the semi finals scheduled to take place tomorrow, the British duo face up to Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, the Indonesian pair who won the world championship in August last year. But Robertson expects to wrap up that match, "We will expect to win the semi-final," he said. "But we will need to use the home crowd to our advantage."

More Sporting Stuff