Norfolk's wheelchair tennis sensation Alfie Hewett's hopes of winning an 11th consecutive wheelchair doubles grand slam were dashed at Wimbledon.
Hewett and Gordon Reid were beaten 6-3 6-1 by Gustavo Fernandez and Shingo Kunieda in the final on Court Three.
The top-seeded British duo had not lost a slam final together since Wimbledon in 2019 but their reign was brought to a disappointing end when Hewett double-faulted on match point.
However, all is not lost for the Norfolk-born star as Hewett faces top seed Kunieda of Japan in the singles final on Sunday (July 10), having beaten Argentinian Fernandez in the semi-final late on Friday night.
Hewett said: “We can’t take anything away from these guys, they’ve been desperate to beat us for some time now.
“Yesterday was a massive day for myself, an incredible day that I’ll always remember, so today was challenging to go again. But we’ll be back next year.”
Hewett admitted he was disappointed not to continue the duo's run in the grand slams - conceding it was "difficult to take".
He said: “We’re obviously disappointed not to continue our run in the Grand Slams and get the win today. It was a difficult match.
“They played pretty well. I think we were probably a little bit tired from yesterday. It’s a difficult one to take.”
Hewett played both his singles and doubles semi-finals on Court 1 on Friday, with both matches proving to be thrilling contests, and with the chance of glory tomorrow he wants the sport to keep breaking down barriers.
He added: “For us at the moment, being at the top of the sport, we want to just keep pushing and head in the right direction, make it even more professional, make it grow as big as we can because we won't be playing this sport forever. There will be an end day at some point.
“Right now we're in a place where we're doing really well. It's getting a lot more exposure, whether it be at the slams or trying to increase the participation in the ATP or WTA events, I think it's happening. I think we're on the right trajectory towards that.
“I think we're making good in-roads. Hopefully yesterday was a stepping stone in that.”
For more information on the LTA’s British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships click here .
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