Britain’s Alfie Hewett reached the final of the men’s wheelchair singles at the Australian Open but Gordon Reid was denied a meeting with his doubles partner by Japan’s Tokito Oda.

Defending champion Hewett, an eight-time Grand Slam singles winner, beat Belgium’s Joachim Gerard 6-4 6-1.

But 2016 champion Reid lost 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 to 17-year-old Oda in Melbourne.

The pair’s doubles semi-final against Japanese duo Daisuke Arai and Takashi Sanada was postponed because of rain.

Andy Lapthorne and American team-mate David Wagner also had their quad wheelchair doubles semi-final against Australian Heath Davidson and Canada’s Robert Shaw rescheduled to Friday.

Hewett’s bid to reach consecutive Australian Open finals suffered an initial setback when he lost serve in the opening game – but the 26-year-old went on to win 12 of 16 games as he breezed through to the final.

The Briton broke Gerard twice to turn the first set around and establish a 4-1 lead, before breaking again to clinch the opener after Gerard had brought it back on serve.

The second set proved much more straightforward for Hewett, who won the Australian Open title for the first time last year, with a double break helping him to a 5-0 lead on his way to sealing victory.

But Reid, attempting to win a 19th Grand Slam doubles titles alongside Hewett, lost out in a close contest with Oda.

With a tie-break required to separate the players in the first set, Reid could not recover after Oda made a series of winners for a 4-0 head-start.

The first break of serve did not arrive until the eighth game of the second set when Oda took a third break point to lead 5-3 – but Reid immediately broke back to stay in the match.

However, Oda landed the final blow as Reid served to force another tie-break to set up a final with Hewett, who he beat in the French Open and Wimbledon finals in 2023 but lost to in last year’s Australian Open title decider.