At 20 and 21, they are the among the youngest women’s doubles pairs in the final of the Olympics. Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, their senior international career less than two years old, are within one win of a fairytale gold medal.

They will be up against a pair seeking the one win that will establish them among the legends of the game – four-time world champions and Olympic silver medallists Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan.

Despite their youth – or perhaps because of it – Liu and Tan showed no nerves on the biggest stage of their lives. A straight-games upset of second seeds Lee So Hee/Baek Ha Na in the quarterfinals was followed by a nerveless display against third seeds Chiharu Shida/Nami Matsuyama today. The big test came towards the end of the second game, with Shida and Matsuyama threatening to force a decider. Liu and Tan had the presence of mind and steadiness of hand to force their way past the Japanese and earn their shot at a possible history-making gold medal.

“We reminded each other that if we lost a point, just let it go. That we can do better on next point. And then we talked about how to play the next,” said Liu.

“It’s incredible now, and then it’s even more unbelievable that we can play with our teammates in the final.”

The other semifinal saw Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan throw down the gauntlet at world No.1s Chen and Jia; the Malaysians were in the race until the very end. For Chen and Jia, their entry to the final is a chance at redemption after their loss in the final at Tokyo 2020. They became the first women’s doubles pair since Ge Fei/Gu Jun to reach successive finals. Another of their women’s doubles predecessors, Yang Wei, had also made successive finals but with different partners.

“I think today’s match was really fascinating, it was also a really tough match,” said Jia. “We knew that they would have gone all out, and we did face a lot of challenges. However, we trusted each other without a doubt, no matter what the score was, we believed that in each other’s company we could win this match.

“Tomorrow’s match is really the last match, and it feels a bit emotional, like we are going on different paths (joking). We meant all we want to do is to cherish the moment, we want to focus on the next match, help both of us to complete the dream.”

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