Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza crashed out of the Wimbledon mixed doubles competition on Friday.Reuters file

One felt that the semi-final encounter in the men's doubles contest between Rohan Bopanna/Florin Merges and Jean Julien-Rojer/Horia Tecau will never come to an end, as the match was played for three hours and 23 minutes.

The pair of Bopanna and Mergea failed to reach the Wimbledon final as they were ousted by Julien-Rojer and Tecau in a thrilling encounter, which went right down to the wire. The score read 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6 and 13-11.

The Indo-Romanian pair started the game well as they took the first set in a comfortable manner, but Julien-Rojer and Tecau came back in the game strongly winning the next two sets.

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If Bopanna and Mergea were to reach the finals of the competition, they had to pull their socks up in the final two games and they did. However, they still could not cross the finishing line as the last set produced some exhilarating tennis, which the Indo Romanian pair lost 11-13.

The way the first four sets had progressed, it was understood that the team, which broke the serve had a greater chance of progressing to the Wimbledoin final and the same happened in the 24th game of the final set, where the seventh seed serve was broken.

Hence, they were on the losing side of things.

But make no mistake, Bopanna and Mergea produced some breath taking tennis not only during the semi-final encounter, but the entire competition as they even toppled the top seeds of the competition, Mike and Bob Bryan in the last eight.

It was not a great day for India's Sania Mirza -- paired up with Bruno Soares -- in the quarter finals of the mixed doubles competition as she was also ousted.

Sania and Soares, seeded second in the competition, lost a close encounter against Alexander Peya of Austria and Timea Babos of Hungary with the score reading 6-3, 6-7(6-8) and 7-9.

India's veteran, Leander Paes partnering Martina Hingis in the mixed doubles competition progressed to the semi final of the competition after defeating Marcin Matkowski and Elina Vesnina in straight sets.