The Australian pair were defeated in the semi-finals by No.4 seeds Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of the Russian Olympic Committee, 5-7 6-4 [13-11].

“It's a tough one to swallow, I think those tiebreaks at times, they go either way and we just didn't quite have the run of the grain,” Barty said.

“We put ourselves in a position to win the match, we just weren't able to close it out. It was a good level, no doubt disappointing but we get to fight for a medal tomorrow.”

Peers added: “We started off great and gave ourselves some chances, got a bit unlucky in the second set and also on that tiebreak so, as Ash said, we didn’t quite get the run of the grain.”

The duo still have the chance to win a medal on Saturday.

“This one hurts but we still have an opportunity to play another match and try to win a medal for Australia. We pick ourselves up pretty quickly, move on and know that we will give it our all and keep fighting right until the end,” Barty added.

“You never know in sport, anything can happen, so we’ll just keep chipping away and keep trying to play our brand of tennis and keep giving ourselves the opportunity.

“It's been quite a while since we've had an Australian medallist here (in tennis) at the Olympics so we're looking forward to that challenge.”

The Australians will face world No.1 Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia in the bronze medal play-off. They play second match on court 1. Play begins at 4:00pm (AEST).

The last time Australia won an Olympic medal in tennis was in Athens 2004 when Alicia Molik won bronze in the women’s singles.

Results

Mixed doubles semifinals

• SF [4] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (ROC) / Andrey Rublev (ROC) d Ash Barty (AUS) / John Peers (AUS) 5-7 6-4 [13-11]

Schedule of play – Saturday 31 July 2021

Mixed doubles bronze medal play-off

• Ash Barty (AUS) / John Peers (AUS) v Novak Djokovic (SRB) / Nina Stojanovic (SRB) – second match on court 1

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