Robertson and Emms will need to be at their best because the draw has thrown them a tough first-round challenge in China's Zheng Bo and Gao Ling.
It was Gao and former partner Zhang Jun who beat the British pair in a gripping gold medal shoot-out in 2004. And since the Athens Olympics, Gao and Zheng have beaten Robertson and Emms in all four of their matches.
It was to prepare for just such an eventuality that Robertson underwent ankle surgery just three months ago. He admitted: "It could have gone wrong, with Beijing being so close. But there are so many good couples competing in mixed doubles now that Gail walking on court 100 per cent fit and me walking on court 90 per cent fit wouldn't have been good enough for an Olympic Games."
No effort was spared to help the pair, with British head coach Ian Wright even hiring Birmingham's National Indoor Arena (NIA) for a practice match against Poland's top pair.
Wright said: "The hall at our Milton Keynes headquarters is too good in many ways. In the bigger, slower halls, like the NIA, Nathan has to work harder for his points so it was good match practice for him."
Wright also brought along life-size cardboard cut-outs of Gao and Zheng for some light-hearted target practice.
Robertson recalled: "It was hilarious. One of my first shots hit Zheng's arm so hard that it fell off. When someone else knocked the top of Gao Ling's head off they had to reinforce the cut-outs."
It will be a lot more serious in the Olympic badminton hall, where a partisan capacity crowd of 7,500 will be baying for British blood.
Robertson said: "It will be noisy, it will be oppressive, but that will just act as an added incentive for us. Gail and I won the China Open - to take out a Chinese pair in their own Olympics would be fantastic.
"We've got huge potential, Gail and myself. We've shown that over and over again in major tournaments. And I have a good feeling we'll do it this time, too."
