It was just over a year ago, in April 2023, that Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu decided to pair up. That was after the Australian National Championships – which Mapasa had won with a different partner, Sylvina Kurniawan.

To make the cut for Paris 2024, the new partnership had to break into the top 50 of the World Rankings – a challenging task, for the qualifying window would close 30 April 2024. A further challenge was that they were based in different cities – Mapasa was in Sydney, Yu in Melbourne.

It’s a testament to their ability that Mapasa and Yu made the cut for Paris 2024 – at No.36, they were the only Oceania pair in the top 50.

“The coaches decided to put us together,” recalls Angela Yu. “I just couldn’t believe it, because she’s really good, and I didn’t think she’d want to play with me.”

Nevertheless, they did hit it off quickly, getting better as the season progressed, and enjoying a golden run of three back-to-back titles in Kaohsiung (Super 100), Bendigo (International Challenge) and Sydney (International Series). The year ended with two more semifinals, at the Syed Modi International (Super 300) and Guwahati Masters (Super 100).

This year has seen them compete regularly on the HSBC BWF World Tour – and the results have been striking. At the Swiss Open they made the semifinals beating Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, before quarterfinal finishes at the Malaysia Masters and their home Australian Open.

“Our styles complement each other,” said Angela Yu. “She sets up everything, she finishes everything. I get whatever she can’t get, and keep the rally going.

“We had some really good results, due to our hard work and our coach. We struggled initially with communication but now off-court we are comfortable in speaking up if we have any issues, and we listen to each other about our problems.”

Mapasa has been one of Oceania’s standout players over the last decade. With Gronya Somerville she won four straight Oceania Championships from 2017 to 2020; then won the title with Sylvina Kurniawan in 2023, before her latest partnership with Angela Yu got them this year’s crown.

Having played Tokyo 2020 with Somerville, Mapasa is thankful to have qualified for her second Olympics.

“We just synced together and were happy to play with each other. I feel every day we learn something. It’s very special that I can get to play in another Olympics with a new partner.”

Angela, who will follow in the footsteps of her mother Tang Hetian as an Olympian, recalls the final weeks before the end of qualifying:

“We were stressed in the last few weeks. We started off trying to win as much as we can, and slowly we got better and better. We never thought of qualifying; we only thought of winning one game after another. It was getting tense at the end, but looking back, I thought I’d done everything I could. From the start to now, all these tournaments are my first, I’d never played such high level tournaments.

“I was really happy to qualify. The Olympics for me is like a dream, it’s my first time and everyone is so happy.”