Chris McHugh and Damien Schumann are in a must-win matchup in their third and final pool matchup against Spain’s Herrera and Gaviria, with the winner keeping their Olympic campaign alive, while Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy will aim to build on their first-up victory over Cuba as they take on Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi-Toth. 

The Spanish pair of Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gaviria enter the tournament 14th in Olympic rankings, with Athens 2004 silver medallist Herrera competing in his fifth Olympics, while Gaviria is back for his third Games. 

“Pablo Herrera is a legend of our sport, bronze medallist in 2004, and Adrian Gaviria has done some phenomenal things in our sport as well,” McHugh said. 

“They are a very tough team and I expect them to come out and really go after this quite aggressively. They're an aggressive team who take a lot of risks, particularly defensively. But we match up with them really well and they don't like our style of game. I think it will be a really interesting game. 

“Playing a must-win, decisive game like our matchup against Spain is liberating in some respect, but can be quite scary as well. It’s great to have another opportunity to step out onto the court and represent Australia.” 

Schumann agreed, adding they pair had played the Spaniards several times in the past.  

“These guys have been a top-10 team in the world for at least the last 10 years, one of them won an Olympic medal in 2004 and they've, they are absolute legends of the game,” Schumann said. 

“I played them with (previous partner) Cole a couple of times and Chris and I played them back in 2017 three times. If we play our best, we definitely have a chance. We've beaten them before like they have beaten us before - it's a massive match and things are always different at the Olympics.” 

With the conclusion of pool play for the men, the first two teams from each of the six pools qualify for the round of 16, along with the two best third-ranked teams. The other four third-ranked teams will contest the two remaining ‘lucky-loser’ spots in the knockout draw.  

Clancy and Artacho del Solar’s second game of their Olympic campaign is against Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi-Toth, who qualified for the Games ranked 18th. The Italians went down in their first game against the Russian Olympic Committee. 

“I've played Marta and Vicki quite a lot over the years when they were with different partners but never together,” Clancy said. 

“Marta is a really great player, she's definitely one of the best on tour. She has such beautiful instinct of the game, so we know we'll have to try and keep her out of the game – it’s a good challenge.  

“We need to make sure we're really good on our serves, and really lock in when she’s serving to try and make sure they can’t have that influence over the game.” 

Artacho del Solar knows the Australians will need to be at their best to gain their second win of their Olympic campaign. 

“They’re a really good team, Marta’s got so much experience and she's such a competitor and Vicky is so strong,” Artacho del Solar said.  

“It will be a tough game where we have to focus on the process and the parts of the game we can control. Being patient will be important because we know they're going to make plays.  

“After playing in the heat in our first game this will be an evening game – there’s pros and cons to night versus day but I’m looking forward to getting back out there.” 

The Australians who are ranked 5th on Olympic rankings will then play their final pool game against the Russian Olympic Committee pair on Friday.