Jonny Marray and Frederik Nielsen's fairytale 2012 was brought to a crushing end after a straight sets defeat at the hands of Marcel Granolles and Marc Lopez in the ATP World Tour Finals semi-final.

The Wimbledon men's doubles champions were broken in the third game of the match on their way to losing the opening set 6-4, and despite exchanging breaks with their clay-specialist opponents, wilted in the second set 6-3.

Granollers and Lopez will now face the Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna on Monday, while defeat for Marray and Nielsen brings an end to their break-through year as a doubles partnership.

Jonny Marray and Frederik Nielsen
Marray and Nielsen crash out at the semi-final stage.

Having qualified from their group with a 2-1 round robin record, Marray and Nielsen took on a pair on Granollers and Lopez who had two wins on the ATP tour in 2012, and four further final appearances.

And the Spanish pair's familiarity appeared evident from the off as the Wimbledon champions were broken in the third game.

Marray and Nielsen then missed the opportunity to break back after being at 15-40, and then at 3-4 down, another chance came and went as the British and Danish pair failed to recapture their form from the group phase.

Granollers and Lopez missed their own chance to extend their lead and take the set in the tenth game after faltering following two break points as Nielsen's wide return proved too good.

But it only worked to delay the Hispanic pair taking the opening set 6-4 and putting one foot in Monday's final.

The home favourite pair missed another opportunity to break in the fourth game of the second, as Nielsen was again left frustrated by a miscued forehand.

Having taken none of their eight break point opportunities, Granollers and Lopez all-but put the match beyond doubt with a break of their own to lead 3-2.

But the break only sparked a spell of two successive losses of serve from both pairs, leaving Granollers and Lopez with a 4-3 advantage as the match began to ebb and flow.

However, it was the No.6 seeds Granollers and Lopez who eventually kept their nerve, breaking Marray and Nielsen in the ninth game to set up a final against Bhupathi and Bopanna on Monday