Wimbledon, July 9 (IANS): India's Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea lost in the men's doubles semi-final at the Wimbledon tennis championship here on Thursday.

The ninth seeds went down 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-4, 11-13 to fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania in the match which lasted for three hours and 23 minutes on Court 2 of the All England Club.

Bopanna-Mergea began the keenly contested match on the right note as they broke their opponents twice to claim the first set 6-4.

However, the fourth seeds came back strongly into the match, winning 15 of 19 first serve points and also breaking Bopanna-Mergea twice on three occasions.

They also didn't let their opponents break them, thus winning the set 6-2 at ease.

Rojer-Tecau in the third set again served brilliantly and broke their opponents twice to go two set up in the contest.

The match turned into a see-saw contest, as the fourth set saw Bopanna-Mergea playing some aggressive tennis to make a comeback by winning the set 6-4.

Bopanna-Mergea came close but failed to hold on as Rojer-Tecau won the super tie-break 13-11 to book a place in the final.