For the second successive year Hampshire's Chris Johnson reached Saturday's quad singles final at the Salzburg Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships before the defending champion had his title snatched away by in-form Italian Marco Innocenti at Europe's latest ITF 2 Series event on the 2009 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
Thirty-eight-year-old Johnson was one of three Britons in the quad singles semi-finals, earning a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Frenchman Sebastian Jance to book his place in the last eight before putting in a fine display to beat French second seed Patrick Sappino 6-1, 6-4.
With fellow Britons Antony Cotterill and Liam O'Reilly both seeded and having byes in to the quarter-finals, third seed Cotterill eased past Austria's Peter Tatschl 6-1, 6-1, while fourth seed O'Reilly edged his way to a 6-0, 5-7, 7-5 victory over Stephane Erismann of France.
Cotterill made a bold attempt at setting up a rematch of his 2008 final against Johnson, but the Cheshire player was unable to build on an encouraging start and Innocenti fought back to win their semi-final 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, with Johnson also needing three sets before fending off O'Reilly 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
Both Johnson and Innocenti began the tournament unseeded, but having put out the top two seeds between them, it was the Italian who maintained his form right to the end, completing a career best performance to beat Johnson 6-1, 6-1.
Johnson also had to be content with runners-up honours in the quad doubles after he and Cotterill justified their second seeding to reach the final. But once again another Anglo-Italian contest came out in favour of the Italians as top seeds Innocenti and Raffaele beat Cotterill and Johnson 6-3, 6-0.
There was good news for Wiltshire's Louise Hunt in the women's singles, with the lone British representative likely to earn a new career high ranking after reaching the semi-finals.
Eighteen-year-old Hunt began the tournament world ranked No 46, some six places shy of her career best of No 40. However, she should now move to a new high after a 6-3, 6-0 win over Switzerland's Nathalie Hans and 7-6, 6-1 victory over Italy's Monica Quassinti booked her place in the last four at the ITF 2 Series tournament.
After rain forced Saturday's semi-final indoor, a promising effort saw Hunt's challenge eventually end in a 3-6, 2-6 loss to Belgian second seed and world No 10 Annick Sevenans.