Thursday, August 14, 2008

Robertson and Emms (Great Britian) battle on

One of my favorite upsets came in day 4 of the tournament. Great Britain’s Badminton Olympic team pulled one of the most unexpected upsets when Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson, pulled off a fantastic comeback and became the first members of Team GB to truly silence a Chinese crowd with a win over number two seeds Gao Ling and Zheng Bo.

I managed to watch the game and I thought Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson played a fantastic attacking game compared to the Chinese who were more defensive. Gail Emms played very aggressively in the front of the net, anticipating her opponent’s shots and countering them with hard driving shots to the Chinese players which created many openings for Nathan Robertson to play his hard smashes.

In mix doubles, it's very important for the lady to cover the front of the net well and to create opportunities for the male partner to attack and. Whoever who does this well normally ends up winning the game. Gail and Nathan did just exactly that, coming from 17-12 down in the final game to surprise the Chinese opponents and snatch a dramatic victory to enter the quarter finals.

This must be a shocker to Li Yong Bo as his hopes of 3 gold medals looks faded as the days goes by.
Robertson said: "We were so determined that this was not to be our last game together but at 17-12 down in the third we were just fighting for our lives.
"It so difficult to get a run of points against Chinese pairs but we managed it."
Emms said: "In the first game we just came out and we were blinding. And in the second we weren't doing anything wrong but they just came at us.
"In that third game we just had to keep fighting. You just keep sticking in there. You just don't want to give up."

It takes a lot of mental strength to do what they did.. Keep it up guys! Hope we'll get to see you play in the finals!

Looks like one of my predictions came true :)

If ya wish to catch the action do click below:


Click here to watch the highlights of the game..

Ciao da mao!

No comments: