The hopes of an Australian doubles' double at Wimbledon have been dashed on another baking day on No.1 Court as Olivia Gadecki was beaten in her women's semi-final alongside American Desirae Krawczyk.
Twenty-four hours after Rinky Hijikata, partnering Dutchman David Pel, had reached the men's doubles final amid high excitement, Gadecki and Krawczyk went down a bit more tamely 3-6 6-0 6-3 to eighth seeds, Russian Veronika Kudermetova and Belgian Elise Mertens, in their last-four contest on the same arena on Friday.
Gadecki had been hoping to make it the first time in 21 years that an Australian had qualified for both the men's and women's doubles finals at the All England Club in the same year.
Back in 2004, Todd Woodbridge had won his ninth and last Wimbledon title with Jonas Bjorkman, while Rennae Stubbs partnered Cara Black to victory in the women's event.
Gadecki and Krawczyk in the first tournament they've played together, hadn't dropped a set coming into their last-four clash, and they started brightly again before their experienced opponents flicked a switch after losing the first set and took complete control.
Gold Coast player Gadecki, who had been knocked out in the first round of the singles, had been looking to add to her grand slam collection after winning the Australian Open mixed doubles with John Peers in January.
But the onus now is all on Hijikata who became the fifth Australian to reach the men's doubles final in the last 10 editions when he produced some match-winning heroics in the semi-final against El Salvador's Marcelo Arevalo and Croatian Mate Pavic.
He and Pel, who had not played together until this week after they got into the tournament only as reserves, will next meet Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, who are the first all-British team to play in the final since 1960 and are seeking to become the first home winners since 1936.
