An Olympic medal is within touching distance – but, at the same time, agonisingly out of reach still – for four pairings as some of the biggest names in tennis continue to fight their way through the mixed doubles draw at Tokyo 2020.

Once again there was drama and intrigue as the field was whittled down following a day of pulsating quarter-final action which had viewers biting their nails and on the edge of their seats.

The upshot is a semi-final cast list which includes the two top-ranked singles players on the planet, with Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and Novak Djokovic of Serbia both through to the last four.

In the second clash of the day to go the distance, Barty and John Peers held their nerve during a tense match tiebreak to edge past Greece’s Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 4-6 10-6.

Standing between Barty and Peers and a shot at gold are ROC’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev, who reached the last four following a topsy-turvy tussle of their own with home favourites Ben McLachlan and Ena Shibahara. Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev eventually triumphed 7-5 6-7(7) 10-8.

The top half of the draw, meanwhile, was a little more sedate as Djokovic, fresh from quarter-final singles win over Japan's Kei Nishikori, joined forces with Nina Stojanovic to overpower Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Laura Siegemund 6-1 6-2.

Djokovic and Stojanoivc will now face Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev – the second ROC duo to make the last four – in the semi-finals after they dispatched Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Iga Swiatek 6-4 6-4.  

Perhaps the secret to mixed doubles success is fun. It certainly seems to be working for Barty, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, and Peers, who topped the doubles podium at the 2017 Australian Open – a word they repeatedly used in their post-victory remarks.

“This is the most fun,” said Barty. “We are still in the hunt for a medal for Australia and we hope to be making our family in Australia proud. We’re enjoying every step of the way.

“It’s exciting and it’s why we came here. The whole tennis team, the whole Team Australia, that’s why we came here, to try and win medals for our country. To now be in that position is a lot of fun. I’m super-proud of our week so far but we’re certainly not done yet.”

Barty and Peers have contested five Grand Slam tournaments together with their partnership returning a 7-5 win-loss record. Their best results were a run to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2013 and the US Open a year later.

Peers, who is ranked No. 25 in the doubles world rankings, echoes Barty’s sentiments about the need to continue enjoying their on-court union, and he too sees no reason why the party has to stop. 

“Ash and I just came out here to have a lot of fun, and see how the results can be,” said Peers. “Today, we kept our composure, kept having fun all the way and came off as the winners.

“Let’s see if we can produce another good match. At the end of the day, we have been playing a good level. They [Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev] will be another tough match-up.

“It’s going to come down to whether we can produce another good level, enjoy the match, execute at the right times and take care of our serves. There’s no reason we can’t have another good day.”

The camaraderie of Team Australia is also proving a driving factor. “We’ve got a great set-up in the village where the Aussies get around TVs watching everyone all the time. It creates a whole team buzz,” added Peers.

“It’s probably one of the biggest factors of the Aussie team, how close the whole team is and how everyone gets behind each other. Ride the wave and keep going.”

While it was the end of the road for Tsitsipas and Sakkari, who were reprising their successful Hopman Cup partnership, at Tokyo 2020, one half of the duo is already eyeing Olympic success in Paris in 2024.

“It was great to play again with each other,” said Sakkari. “We really enjoyed it. Of course, we wanted to win today.

“I think we'll be more ready in three years to play with each other and, as I told him already, I think that we will both be better players. Not that we're not good now, but it's going to be a different situation and I really believe in the two of us.”

It was a day when Djokovic took another significant step towards topping the singles podium and achieving the Olympic leg of his calendar Golden Slam bid, admitting he had played his best tennis of the tournament so far.

But it is his mere presence which is proving so inspirational for Stojanovic, who reached the semi-finals of the women's doubles at this year’s Australian Open alongside Croatia’s Darija Jurak.

“Novak is always playing amazing,” said the 24-year-old. “Him playing amazing just inspires me more. I’m just pushing myself even harder and I’m just trying to be in the same range that he is on the court, at least with the energy. I am happy we played really good today.”