Sania Mirza and Shahar Peer's controversial campaign at Wimbledon was brought to a halt by top seeds Lisa Raymond of the United States and Australia's Samantha Stosur in the third round of the women's doubles on Thursday.
The Indo-Israeli pair, seeded 16th, went down 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in an hour and 25 minutes.
Raymond-Stosur played the first set with rehearsed finesse, outplaying their opponents and making them look like blundering novices. It looked like a cakewalk for them, when, having wrapped up the first set in 15 minutes, they served for the match at 5-4 and again at 6-5 in the second set.
But the Sania-Peer battled back to force the set into a tie-break and win it 7-4.
The Indo-Israeli pair's attacking play, which has seen both the girls rise rapidly in the singles ranks too, came to the fore once the shackles of nerves was broken by the impending result.
The duo had made 17 unforced errors to only three by Raymond-Stosur, but by the end of the second set tie-break they were able to better the equation to 17:9.
The fightback, however, was short-lived. The top seeds, shaken up from their lapse in concentration, took only 25 minutes to close out the third set, winning it 6-1.
In the quarter-finals, they take on the winners of the match between fifth seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs and Michaella Krajicek and Agnieszka Radwanska.
