Wimbledon: Alfie Hewett loses to Shingo Kunieda in men's wheelchair singles final

Shingo Kunieda is the first player to hold all four Grand Slam men's wheelchair singles titles

Britain's Alfie Hewett lost a dramatic Wimbledon men's wheelchair singles final in a final-set tie-break against Japanese top seed Shingo Kunieda.

Contesting his first singles final at SW19, Hewett, 24, served for the championship four times.

But Kunieda won seven successive points from 5-3 down in the tie-break to complete a 4-6 7-5 7-6 (10-5) victory and hold all four major titles.

"I'm obviously gutted. That is going to sting for a while," said Hewett.

"It has been incredible this week to get wheelchair tennis on Court One and to get the amount of spectators that were there. There have been some incredible matches.

"I will reflect on this with a lot of positives and I'm just ready for a break."

Later on Sunday, compatriot Andy Lapthorne and American team-mate David Wagner, the defending quad wheelchair doubles champions, were beaten by Dutch top seeds Sam Schroder and Niels Vink in the final.

Two-time winner Lapthorne was contesting his third successive Wimbledon quad doubles final, and he and Wagner took the first set in a tie-break.

But they were broken twice in sets two and three as they lost 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-3.

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The singles crown was a first Wimbledon title for world number one Kunieda, who has won 11 singles titles at the Australian Open in addition to eight victories at the French Open and eight at the US Open.

The reigning Paralympic champion now holds all four major men's wheelchair singles titles.

Kunieda, 38, said it was "a dream came true right now", adding: "Thank you to Alfie for a great battle. You have more years [ahead of you] than me so you can get this title in the future."

Hewett unable to take chances

Alfie Hewett is a five-time Grand Slam singles champion

Hewett, a three-time French Open and twice US Open singles champion, was bidding to become the second British player to win the Wimbledon title after doubles partner Gordon Reid's triumph in 2016.

This year's singles final came after Hewett and Reid's remarkable run of 10 consecutive Grand Slam wheelchair doubles titles was ended by Kunieda and his Argentine partner Gustavo Fernandez in a straight-set defeat on Saturday.

And that followed an exhausting effort on Friday to come through both his singles and doubles semi-final matches, with almost six hours on court.

In the opening set on Sunday, Hewett and Kunieda exchanged several breaks, but the Briton continued to apply pressure and saved two break points to serve out the set.

Once again making a positive start in set two - a forehand winner seizing a second break point - Hewett served for the title when leading 5-4.

But he could not distance Kunieda, who protected his title hopes with a break back for 5-5 before winning two successive games to level the match.

A determined Hewett rallied with a series of winners, helping him break twice as he established leads of 3-0 and 5-2 in the deciding set.

Hewett served for the title three more times but, despite the support from the home crowd, was ultimately unable to end Kunieda's resistance before falling short in the tie-break.

Afterwards, Hewitt said: "Congratulations to Shingo and his team. We were both so desperate to win. You are one of the best wheelchair players we will ever see. That was epic from you today."

Kunieda added: "Thank you to my team for the great support every day. A special thanks to Roger Federer. He gave me very good advice last year so he was one of the reasons I got the title this year."

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