BASINGSTOKE tennis ace Josh Goodall and his British partner Ross Hutchins produced two great performances in the Men's doubles at Wimbledon.

The young Brits were knocked out in the second round, but not before giving number six seeds Fabrice Santoro and Nemad Zimonjic a scare by taking the first set as they went down in a battling display 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

On Thursday night, Goodall and Hutchins showed great British bulldog spirit as they came back from two sets down to win a thriller against Stanislas Wawrinka and Christophe Rochus 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3.

For both games, Goodall had to have his stomach strapped-up to protect an injury he managed to aggravate in his first-round singles defeat on Wednesday against Dutchman Melle van Gemerden.

Speaking after his second doubles game, Goodall said: "I feel we have proved we can play at this level, as Santoro and Zimonjic are one of the top 10 pairs in the world and are only here to play doubles.

"Maybe in the future we will be able to play in the Davis Cup as a doubles pair, which I think has to be good for Great Britain in that competition."

"Today we knew it was going to be tough, and we were not returning serve as well as we can. But we took a set off them and so we will take a lot of positives from the game. Having strapped my stomach up, it felt alright."

The British pair's progress justified their wild card entry to the event, but Goodall admitted that due to injuries, they had not practised as much as they would have liked.

They now have a run of grass court tournaments at Felixstowe, Nottingham and Manchester, so they will hopefully get among the titles again.

On Saturday at midday, under the blazing sun, Goodall and Hutchins stepped out on court 14 to face a pair whose combined doubles ranking was 25 to their 530.

But if Frenchman Santoro and Serbia and Montenegro star Nemad Zimonjic felt they were in for a easy ride, they soon realised they were not. Every game in the first set went with serve, taking it to a tie-break.

The Brits then went to work, as a Hutchins overhead winner and a Goodall ace made it 2-1.

It was then Santoro's turn to serve and, thanks to great volley winners at the net from both Hutchins and Goodall, the Brits were in the driving seat at 4-1.

Hutchins then won both his service points to give the home-grown talent five set points.

Despite their opponents saving two, a Zimonjic return into the net on the first Goodall serve clinched the tie-break 7-4.

The second set, like the first, saw the first eight games go with serve, until an unfortunate net cord saw the Brits lobbed, and at break-point their opponents won game nine before serving out the set 6-4.

After winning 18 serve games on the trot, Goodall suffered a rare break at the start of the next set.

The home team battled on and forced a break point on Zimonjic's serve, but the Serbian hit an ace to get himself out of trouble and once again the set was taken 6-4.

As in their first match, Goodall and Hutchins never gave up and the next four games all went with serve.

Game five proved to be the Brits' undoing as Hutchins was broken, and from there the sixth seeds seized the opportunity to once again take a set 6-4 and close the match out in just under two-and-a-half hours.

On Thursday evening, on court four, Goodall and Hutchins faced Belgium's Christophe Rochus, ranked in the top 100 doubles players in the world, and Switzerland's Wawrinka, a player who beat Andy Murray in last year's Davis Cup.

After an hour of the game, the Brits looked to be heading for an quick exit as they trailed 6-3, 6-4. But they were not about to leave SW19 in a hurry, and a third set tie-break turned the tide of the game as they won it 7-4.

The next set saw Wawrinka save his second serve game from 0-40 down, but in game nine he was not so lucky as the home pair struck for a 5-4 lead.

The Brits then kept the crowd on the edge of their seats as they came back from 40-15 down to take the set and square the match after two hours and 15 minutes.

In the fifth set, it was Wawrinka who was again broken in game five and Goodall and Hutchins held their nerve in game eight coming back from 0-30 down to win.

It was left to the Swiss man to have to serve to stay in the match, and thanks to two consecutive winners by Goodall, the brilliant comeback was completed in just under three hours.

After the match, Goodall said: "This is unbelievable - the best feeling I have ever had so far in my tennis career. I kept saying to Ross if we can win a set I think we have a chance'.

"Once we did, we had the momentum to go on and win the game, and the crowd were brilliant."