An aggravated calf muscle injury forced Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] to withdraw from the semi-finals of the French Open [ Images ] mixed doubles, ending the Indian challenge at the clay-court Grand Slam in Paris on Thursday.

Bhupathi and partner Jie Zheng of China gave a walkover to the top-seeded pair of Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in the last-four match, as the Indian was not match-fit till the last moment.

The ace doubles player had injured his calf muscle earlier this summer and aggravated it further during the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

According to reports, playing in the semis might have cost the 34-year-old pro the entire summer, including Wimbledon [ Images ] and the Beijing [ Images ] Olympics [ Images ].

Bhupathi, who played alongside Mark Knowles [ Images ] of the Bahamas, lost in the first round of the men's doubles while another Indian, Leander Paes [ Images ], and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy [ Images ] went down in the third round.

Paes and Nadia Petrova [ Images ] of Russia [ Images ] lost to Bhupathi and Zheng in the first round of the mixed doubles.