Edinburgh (Scotland), July 4 With around eight million viewers watching the Wimbledon semi-final between British tennis hope Andy Murray and American Andy Roddick, experts have estimated that 120 million pounds worth of man hours were lost at work.

Analysts believe that around half of the eight million skipped work to watch the historic semi-final, reports The Scotsman.

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the Centre for Economics and Business Research, was quoted as saying: "It would probably be reasonable to assume a loss of about one and a half hour's productivity on average.

"Hourly GDP in the UK is 800 million pounds so this would imply a loss of productivity of 120 million pounds.

McWilliams said the loss of productivity could be outweighed by an unexpected Friday-afternoon boost for licensed traders from thirsty fans.

Murray mania has also been blamed for a huge increase in the number of workers taking "sickies" over the last week.

Absence management firm First Care said absences in the private sector had been 17 per cent higher than would be expected this year, while the number of NHS employees off was 30 per cent higher than normal.

Key factors, included swine flu and other flu-related illnesses, people suffering ill health in the hot weather and the drama of Murray's progress through Wimbledon. (ANI)