THE CHINESE have paid Nathan Robertson the highest compliment, six months before the start of the Beijing Games. They didn’t invite him to compete in the preOlympic test event. Gail Emms, Robertson’s mixed doubles partner, was allowed to go, but with her women’s doubles partner, not as the other half of the couple who could threaten a Chinese clean sweep of gold medals.

“They’re never helpful when you play in China,” said Robertson. “We accept that they will do things to mess up your rhythm. We’ll be expecting that.”

This might not be the most diplomatic approach to the tournament that could confirm the Olympic silver medallists from Athens as the undisputed pop idols of Britain’s parish halls. But they have toured the world for eight years, have won the China Open, played in front of 20,000 screaming fans in Malaysia and taken the Commonwealth, European and world titles, so they know the required encore.

Indeed, Robertson has his fantasy future planned out already: first win gold in Beijing, then either persuade Emms to postpone her retirement or find an equally feisty new partner and sweep through the European team (Manchester 2009), European individual (Liverpool 2010) and world championships (London 2011) before a glorious finale in London in 2012.

By then, Robertson will be 35 and pushing the upper age limit of an intensely physical sport. “I can do it,” he says. “I don’t intend to stop. I just wish I was a couple of years younger.”

This week at the Yonex All-England championships in Birmingham, the most prestigious tournament on the international calendar, China will have three pairs in the top five seeds of the mixed doubles. Only Robertson and Emms have mounted a consistent challenge to Asian supremacy, pitching a European subtlety of stroke and variation of rhythm against the all-action, high-powered style of the Chinese players. It has brought them success, fame even in China, but not the ultimate prize in Athens in 2004, when Emms and Robertson, spiky blonde and languid boy-next-door, lost to China’s Gao Ling and Zhang Jun in the final.

“There was an almost unspoken understanding after Athens that we had unfinished business with the Olympics,” says Robertson. “We won silver but we also lost the last match we played in the Olympics and now we have the chance to do better. We worked really intensely for two years and won the world championships so it was obvious for both of us what we had left to do.”

Zhang Jun has been replaced by Zheng Bo in the Chinese No 1 pair but the rivalry China v Robertson and Emms will be as intense as ever when the All-England title doubles up as a psychological marker for the summer.

“Funnily enough, the All-England wasn’t one of my favourite tournaments for a long time, but we’ve played great for the past three years,” said Robertson. “This is the tournament people want to win before the Olympics, so nobody will be holding back. All the top players are here.”

The renewed vigour of his training regime is clearly paying off for Robertson. He is, he says, lighter and fitter than at any time since he was 18. The wear and tear is beginning to tell on his knees, which might require an injection or surgery before or after the Games. Badminton is, in the words

of Robertson, “pretty hardcore”, as intense a test of athleticism as any in sport.

Nor should anyone believe badminton has a code of conduct. Gamesmanship can take many forms, from retightening knee bandages to crushing shuttlecocks Robertson’s particular forte and smashing a shuttle at 200mph at the woman player at the front of the court. Robertson revels in the hand-to-hand combat as much as his more obviously aggressive partner and has the yellow cards to prove it. His sporting idol is Goran Ivanisevic.

Yet, off court, Robertson lives an idyllically peaceful life, commuting all of five minutes to work from his flat in a converted water mill and playing golf on his days off. And the relative lack of money does not bother him. “The biggest prize in our sport has nothing to do with money, which is how it should be,” he said. “I know this is the best job I will ever have, so I’ll continue as long as my body will allow and as long as I’m near the top.”

Copyright © 2008 Times Online.