Kyle Edmund’s final tournament preparations for Wimbledon ended with a disappointing quarter-final defeat to Mikhail Kukushkin in the Nature Valley International at Eastbourne.
The British No 1 was unable to back up his impressive straight-sets victory over the returning Andy Murray as his experienced Kazakh opponent won 5-7 6-3 6-1.
Edmund was meeting Kukushkin, world No 90, for the first time in his career and victory would have seen him move within two wins of the first singles title of his career.
The opening stages at Devonshire Park were evenly matched before Edmund, world No 18, squandered a break point in successive service games and then lost his serve for the first time in the ninth game of the first set.
Despite the setback, Edmund showed why he has catapulted up the world rankings this season as he saved a set point on Kukushkin's serve before back-to-back breaks saw him clinch the opener.
Kukushkin took a medical timeout but responded well to falling behind in the match to save an early chance of an Edmund break in the second game of the second set to break in the following game.
The 30-year-old maintained his advantage to hold serve without offering any opportunities to Edmund, who ended the set in disappointing fashion with a double fault to bring up a decider.
Edmund once again failed to take advantage of a break point at the start of the third and was broken immediately afterwards as Kukushkin quickly wrapped up victory in confident fashion to book a meeting with Mischa Zverev, who defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-3 6-3.
British No 2 Cameron Norrie was also unable to reach the last four of the tournament as he suffered a 6-3 6-4 defeat to Lukas Lacko.
Norrie, who has enjoyed an impressive debut season in the professional ranks, traded breaks with his opponent but lost three consecutive games to fall a set behind against the Slovak.
The world No 94, maintained his upper hand in the contest with a break in the third game of the second set against the British player, ranked 79th, before he closed out the match after 76 minutes.
Lacko will next face Marco Cecchinato, who recovered from losing the first set to defeat John Millman 5-7 6-3 6-2.
The Italian fourth seed is playing in his first tournament since his memorable run to the French Open semi-finals at Roland Garros.
We will keep you up to date with all the news ahead of Wimbledon including our live blogs once the action gets underway on July 2.
Our next tennis action comes from the German Open in Hamburg. Watch the action live on Sky Sports Arena from Monday, July 23 from 10am.
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