Wagner finishes as runner-up in Australian Open quad doubles

Bidding for a 26th overall Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park, David Wagner came up just short in the Quad wheelchair doubles final at the Australian Open.

As the No. 2 seeds, he and partner Andy Lapthorne of Great Britain were defeated in a match tiebreak by top-seeded Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson, 6-2, 3-6, 10-7, in Tuesday's championship.

The Aussies have been somewhat of a stumbling block for Lapthorne and Wagner at Melbourne Park in recent years, as they've beaten the pair in each of the last four finals Down Under. Three of the four have been decided in match tiebreaks. In this year's match, the second-seeded duo bounced back from losing the first set to force a decider, but never led in the tiebreak after 3-2.

"I think we made a few more winners in the second set. So that helped. I think we stepped up a little bit and committed to our plan together," Wagner told reporters after the match. "I think we made a few less winners in the tiebreak, so I think that made the difference."

Previously at the event, Wagner and Lapthorne had beaten the former's fellow American, Nick Taylor, and his partner Koji Sugeno of Japan in the semifinals, marking Wagner's first victory of any kind since he and Sam Schroder of the Netherlands won the French Open title last October. 

Wagner had been among the players who were required to do a hard quarantine upon arrival in Melbourne following a positive COVID-19 test on the arrival flight from Los Angeles, and was beaten in his first match in each of the two warm-up events of the Aussie summer.

"I'm a competitor and I'm always going to compete until the very end in every match I'm in. I had some really tight matches, three-setters and whatnot, while I've been here, but wasn't able to sneak those matches out," Wagner told usta.com prior to the start of the Australian Open.

"Every day is a new day and you just try to get better each day. I want to just keep playing the best that I can play, to keep improving and to keep trying to work through timing and the things that I'm struggling with from the lack of court time and play, overall, over the past few months. Every time I step on court, I just want to work through the kinks of what I'm going through and be better, whatever that might be. That starts from day one of each tournament."