LONDON -- Croatia's Marin Cilic won the Aegon Championships tennis event in rare fashion on Sunday.

The sixth-seeded Cilic was trailing David Nalbandian, who got out to a 7-6 (7-3), 3-4 advantage, when the Argentine was disqualified at The Queen's Club.

Nalbandian, the No. 10 seed, kicked an advertising board in frustration. A piece of the board hit the line judge, causing bleeding on his left shin.

"I made a mistake and I apologize," said Nalbandian. "I feel very sorry to the guy. I didn't want to do that. This is a bad situation for everybody that I really apologize for."

The match was stopped and Cilic was awarded the win by default. Cilic was playing in his second ATP final of 2012, having lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany on clay in Munich last month.

The 23-year-old Croat improved to 7-7 all-time in ATP finals. It was his first title since last October in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"I'm definitely very sorry to finish the tournament like this, especially in the final where we both I think played good tennis," said Cilic. "He was playing also some great rallies and in those last two games it was extremely interesting with making two breaks one of each side. So I think it was good tennis today."

Meanwhile, Nalbandian fell to 11-12 in title matches and hasn't won a crown since the summer of 2010 in Washington, DC.

Despite the loss, Nalbandian holds a 4-2 lifetime mark against Cilic.

Cilic took home $100,000.