Badminton is one of the most thrilling sports on the planet and yesterday's epic victory for Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms over Gao Ling and Zheng Bo, the No2 seeds from China, proved it beyond the doubt of anyone in possession of a soul. This was sport as it was meant to be: skilled, athletic, impossibly dramatic and played out in front of a capacity audience that cheered itself hoarse and then cheered some more.

Sure, most of the applause was for the China pairing, but by the end of the match, every last one of the 7,500 spectators - including the most raucous of the flag-wavers - had been seduced by the sheer magnificence of what was on display. There was even applause in the usually docile press stands as the four players fought themselves into a state of exhaustion, every last sinew being stretched in pursuit of a place in the quarter-finals.

The structure of the match was preposterous, with the Britain pair, who were expected to start slowly after a season dogged by an ankle injury to Robertson, launching themselves like predators at their startled opponents. The tone was set from the very first point, a rally punctuated with explosive smashes and daring recoveries, after which Emms gesticulated aggressively towards the umpire, claiming that the Chinese had played a double-hit. The point stood, but Emms and Robertson had signalled their intent to a pair whom they had failed to beat in five previous meetings.

Gao, who, in partnership with Zhang Jun, beat Emms and Robertson in the gold-medal match in Athens four years ago, was especially flummoxed by the ferocity of the Britons' onslaught, often failing to make contact with the shuttle amid a state of visible bemusement. She and Zheng quickly surrendered the first game 21-16, but it was never likely that Emms and Robertson would sustain their intensity and slowly the screw began to turn, the volume level in the auditorium notching up with every point won by the China pair.

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Central to the beauty of badminton is its geometry, in which the shuttle darts left and right before, in the blink of an eye,launching skyward like a feather-encrusted firework. But the tactical key for Emms and Robertson was to sustain a low trajectory to neutralise the formidable overhead power of Zheng. As the Chinese pairing forged into a 17-12 lead in the final game and Robertson's energy levels waned, it would have been easy to have bought time with additional use of the lob, but the Britain pair stuck to their game plan to roar back into contention, Emms gesticulating so wildly that she was repeatedly warned by the umpire.

“You have to be pumped,” Emms said. “If I'm in their face and showing them I'm not scared and going to get everything back, then I've got that confidence and belief. They told me off a couple of times for shaking my fist in the air, but I didn't hit anybody or anything.”

The Britons levelled at 17-17, before completing a thrilling 21-19 victory in the deciding game. They now play the dangerous pairing of Lee Hyo Jung and Lee Yong Dae, of South Korea, in the quarter-finals tomorrow, but will be motivated once they realise that there is no one left in the tournament who they have not beaten.

“The Koreans are very tough, but we will be full of confidence after what we have achieved today,” Robertson said. “This is the competition that we want to win above all others; it is the only big one we are yet to win. We are obviously tired after this match, but we will get some rest tomorrow and then we should be ready to do the business.”

The success of Robertson and Emms will come as a huge relief to the GB badminton team, after a poor run of results so far in Beijing. But whether or not the British pair are able to convert their silver in Athens to gold here in the Chinese capital, one thing is certain: the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium, its roof shaped like a giant shuttlecock, will play host to some of the most compelling, dramatic and beautiful sport at the 2008 Games.