Hopes of a British winner at Eastbourne came to an end on Thursday as home favourites Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie both lost in the quarter-finals of the Nature Valley International.
Having knocked out the returning Andy Murray in the previous round, second seed Edmund let slip a one-set lead in his enthralling clash with Mikhail Kukushkin.
The world number 90 reached his first semi-final on the ATP Tour since February 2017 thanks to an impressive performance in the decider, winning the first three games on the spin on his way to a 5-7 6-3 6-1 triumph.
Kukushkin's reward is a last-four meeting with Mischa Zverev, the German having also caused an upset by beating third seed Denis Shapovalov 6-3 6-3 in just 81 minutes.
Wild card Norrie, meanwhile, saw his run in the tournament come to an end at the hands of Lukas Lacko.
Slovakian Lacko - who toppled top seed Diego Schwartzman in his last outing - eased to a 6-3 6-4 victory and will next face surprise French Open semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato, who defeated John Millman 5-7 6-3 6-2.
At the Antalya Open in Turkey, top seed Adrian Mannarino will face fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils after they recorded 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 wins over Joao Sousa and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez respectively.
Having battled back from a set down to defeat Marius Copil in the last round, Damir Dzumhur needed just over an hour to see off Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4 6-1 and reach the last four.
The second seed will be up against Jiri Vesely, who overcame Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 to reach the semi-final stage of an ATP event for the first time this season.
