Israel's involvement in the singles competition at Wimbledon ended in near-darkness on Wednesday evening as wild card Dudi Sela was beaten by 15th seed Gilles Simon of France.

For Sela, it was the end of a brilliant run that had seen him win 16 consecutive matches. He went down after putting on a brave and battling performance.

Sela, who was 29 in the world in 2009, when he reached round four at Wimbledon, went into the competition on the back of three consecutive challenger victories. He now stands at 82.

"I feel a lot fresher this year as I was not involved in the qualifiers which can be very tough," Sela said.

"I like playing on grass - before I didn't. I've learnt a lot from practising two or three years ago with Harel Levy and Andy Ram. We played a lot of points and I was kicking their backsides and slowly, slowly, I was learning more about playing on the surface and I think the more you play on the grass, the better you can play."

"I hope to get into the Israel squad for Olympics but if I had to choose between Wimbledon or the Olympics I would pick Wimbledon every time. My aim is to get back into the top 50 by the end of the year."