Japan's Tokyo Paralympic gold medalist Shingo Kunieda and his Argentinian partner Gustavo Fernandez lost to the top-seeded British pair of Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid on Wednesday in the Australian Open wheelchair men's doubles final.
Kunieda and Fernandez were unable to avenge their straight-sets defeat to Hewett and Reid in last September's U.S. Open final, losing the third-set tiebreak 10-7 after dropping the first set 6-2 and winning the second 6-4.
The 37-year-old Kunieda, who won his third Paralympic singles gold medal last summer in Tokyo, will battle Hewett at Melbourne Park again on Thursday in the wheelchair men's singles final.
Japan's Yui Kamiji and her British partner Lucy Shuker earlier lost a third-set tie break 10-2 to Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot in the wheelchair women's doubles final.
De Groot and van Koot piled on the pressure in the 10-point match tiebreak played in lieu of a third set, going into the decider having won the first 7-5 and dropped the second 6-3 on Day 10 of the season's opening Grand Slam.
De Groot beat Kamiji for the Australian Open wheelchair singles title last year. The Dutchwoman then repeated the pain in front of Kamiji's home crowd at the Tokyo Paralympics, defeating her in the singles gold medal match.
De Groot and van Koot also won doubles Paralympic gold, beating Kamiji and Momoko Otani in the doubles semifinal, and Shuker and Jordanne Whiley in the final.
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