James Ward has suffered a three-set defeat to fifth seed Andreas Seppi to bow out of the Zagreb Indoors at the last-16 stage.
The British number two showed superb resilience to twice fight back from a break down in the second and third sets, but it wasn't enough to prevent Seppi running out a 7-5 6-7 6-3 winner.
Ward started well against the world number 41, but after sharing the opening 10 games with the Italian, he dropped serve for a second time to allow his opponent to move a set ahead.
After Seppi opened up a 4-2 advantage in the second, it appeared as though Ward would suffer a quick exit, but the Londoner stormed back to take the set in a tie-break.
Like in the second, Ward had to haul himself from a break behind, but in the eighth game, Seppi was able to strike back immediately before serving out the match for a place in the quarter-finals.
Darren Plant
