Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles during their men’s doubles quarter final match against Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman on Wednesday. (AFP)

London: Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles twice erased the deficit but were still sent packing from Wimbledon following defeat in a marathon men’s doubles quarter final against Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman here Wednesday.

Going great guns were the Williams siblings who, after claiming two of the four singles semis berths up for grabs on Tuesday, came back Wednesday to win their doubles quarter final match.

Up against the German-American pairing of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Vania King the sisters turned on the style to win in straight sets. The fourth seed Venus and Serena pair overcame their 12th seed opponents 6-2, 7-5.

The fourth seed Indo-Bahamian pair put up a valiant fight before losing 6-7(9-11), 6-4, 6-7(7-9), 5-7, 4-6 to the ninth seed South African-Belgian pair at the All England club in a match that lasted three hour and 37 minutes.

Both the pairs played a solid service game and as the first set did not see any break it had to be decided through a fiercely fought tie-breaker, which Moody and Norman won to go into the lead.

Jolted by the early deficit, Bhupathi and Knowles, apart from saving the only break point, rode on a break to clinch the second set.

With no pair willing to concede an inch, the third set too had to be decided by a tiebreaker, which Moody and Norman clinched to take the lead for a second time.

Bhupathi and Knowles reached deep into their reserves and went on to win the fourth set to stretch the match to a fifth set but could not stop their rivals from marching into the last-eight stage.

Meanwhile, Sudarwa Sitaram’s Wimbledon campaign came to an end with the Indian and his American partner Mitchell Frank bowing out of the boys’ doubles event with a first round defeat.

Sudarwa had lost his singles second round match Tuesday.

The unseeded Indo-American pair were routed 1-6, 2-6 by the second seed Taipei pair of Cheng Peng Hsieh and Liang-Chi Huang.

Day VIII results

SEEDED PLAYERS ONLY

Women’s singles quarter finals — Venus Williams (3, US) bt Agnieszka Radwanska (11, Pol) 6-1, 6-2; Dinara Safina (1, Rus) bt Sabine Lisicki (Ger) 6-7(5-7), 6-4, 6-1; Elena Dementieva (4, Rus) bt Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 6-2, 6-2; Serena Williams (2, US) bt Victoria Azarenka (8, Blr) 6-2, 6-3

Men’s doubles quarter finals — Daniel Nestor (Can) and Nenad Zimonjic (2, Srb) bt Lukasz Kubot (Pol) and Oliver Marach (8, Aut) 6-2, 6-3, 6-4; Bob and Mike Bryan (1, US) bt Bruno Soares (Bra) and Kevin Ullyett (5, Zim) 6-2, 6-1, 6-4