Alex Bogdanovic battled his way through showers, only to lose

Britain's sole representative in the last 16 of Nottingham's Slazenger Open, Alex Bogdanovic, was beaten by Croatia's Marin Cilic on Wednesday.

Cilic, who had beaten second seed Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round, quickly took the upper hand.

Bogdanovic was broken twice early in a first set which straddled a rain delay and was finally beaten 6-4 6-4.

At 5-1 down in the second, the Briton saved two match point and briefly rallied, but it was not enough.

The British number four admitted he had found the wind tricky but was pleased to have pushed a top-60 player so hard.

He said: "The conditions were tough, it was a little windy and Marin's a solid player so it was always going to be a tough match.

"I didn't serve too well today and I couldn't hold serve out there."

Defending champion Ivo Karlovic won a mammoth second-set tie-break against American Sam Querrey to reach the quarter-finals with a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (16-14) victory.

Karlovic's passage through to the final was potentially made easier by the withdrawal in the morning of top seed Radek Stepanek with a rib injury.

The 29-year-old Czech, who was due to play Vince Spadea, will now have a series of scans and is "hoping and praying" he will be fit for Wimbledon next week.

French Open semi-finalist Gael Monfils, seeded eighth, will now face Spadea after beating countryman Julien Benneteau 3-6 6-4 6-2 while seeds Andreas Seppi,Gilles Simon and Fernando Verdasco also reached the last eight.

Dmitry Tursunov was thrown out of the event for storming off court after disagreeing with a line call.

The Russian, partnering South Africa's Chris Haggard in the doubles, quit with the pair trailing Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi 6-4 3-1.

Tursunov was due to play Swede Thomas Johansson in the second round of the singles, but will take no further part.

His exit means Johansson progresses through to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

The 25-year-old Tursunov, seeded 25th for Wimbledon, is now expected to be fined for his actions.