James Ward, Brydan Klein and Joshua Milton bow out in Aegon Manchester Trophy

James Ward has become one of three British players to suffer defeat in the quarter-finals of the Aegon Manchester Trophy.

Ward, the fifth seed at the challenger event, lost out 7-6 6-3 to world number 72 Sam Groth after Brydan Klein and Joshua Milton had also tasted defeat in the last eight.

Klein, who recorded a shock win over Marcos Baghdatis on Thursday, won the opening set against Luke Saville before eventually succumbing by a 4-6 6-4 6-4 scoreline.

World number 355 Milton had enjoyed a fine run to the quarter-finals but he was comfortably beaten 7-5 6-2 by Rajeev Ram.