Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy frittered away chances aplenty and lost to second seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in an epic men's doubles semi-final, spanning two days, at Wimbledon on Friday.
The ninth seeded Indo-Czech pair lost 6-7(4), 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, 6-8 to the second seeded Canadian-Serb duo, which will play Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe in Saturday's final.
The eighth seeds upset top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (11-9) in the first semi-final, which was interrupted by rain, on Thursday.
In a battle that lasted more than three hours on court number one, but took two days to complete, Paes and Dlouhy were done in by unforced errors -- 26 in all against 18 of their opponents -- and their failure to convert 10 of the 12 break-points that came their way.
The teams were tied 3-3 in the fourth set when play was suspended on Thursday due to inclement weather and fading light. When battle resumed in the fourth set on Friday, a break in the tenth game suffice for the Indo-Czech duo to clinch the set.
Games went with serve in the decider till 6-all as Paes and Dlouhy failed to convert the only break-point that came their way. They then dropped serve in the crucial 13th game. Nestor and Zimonjic then served out the next game to take the set and match at 8-6.
Results:
Men's doubles: 2-Daniel Nestor (Canada)/2-Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia) beat 9-Lukas Dlouhy (Czech Republic)/9-Leander Paes (India) 7-6(4) 4-6 6-1 4-6 8-6; 8-Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden)/8-Kevin Ullyett (Zimbabwe) beat 1-Bob Bryan/1-Mike Bryan (U.S) 7-6(3) 5-7 7-6(5) 7-6(9)
Women's doubles: * 16-Lisa Raymond (U.S)/16-Samantha Stosur (Australia) beat 1-Cara Black (Zimbabwe)/1-Liezel Huber (U.S) 6-3, 6-3; 11-Serena Williams/11-Venus Williams (U.S) beat Nathalie Dechy (France)/Casey Dellacqua (Australia) 6-3; 6-3