Jack Draper's run at the Monte-Carlo Masters ended in the third round as the British number one fell to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in three sets on Court Rainier III.
The world number six came into his maiden meeting with the Spaniard fresh from an emphatic 6-1 6-1 victory over Marcos Giron and was bidding to reach the last eight in Monte-Carlo for the first time in his career.
However, Draper was far from his best behind his own racquet throughout, and despite threatening an almighty turnaround in the second set, he succumbed to a 3-6 7-6[6] 4-6 defeat in two hours and 46 minutes.
The pendulum swung back and forth in the deciding third set, where Draper and Davidovich Fokina shared four successive breaks before the British number one held to love to seemingly get the momentum back on his side.
Draper was left to rue serving errors all afternoon, though, and a fatal double fault on Davidovich Fokina's first match point sent the Spaniard through to his third Monte-Carlo quarter-final.
Only defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas has reached more Monte-Carlo quarter-finals than Davidovich Fokina in the last five years, and he will face the winner of Alexei Popyrin and Casper Ruud's third-round battle in the quarter-finals.
Draper laments serving mistakes in Davidovich Fokina defeat
Statement win for Foki 👊
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 10, 2025
Davidovich Fokina defeats world no.6 Draper 6-3 6-7 6-4 to reach his 25th tour-level quarter-final #RolexMonteCarloMasters pic.twitter.com/z3tn4mcoQA
Having won titles on hard and grass courts over the past 12 months, converting that dominance onto the clay is the next item on Draper's agenda, as the British number one searches for his maiden French Open match victory later this year.
The world number six's crushing of Giron ostensibly showed that he was on the right path to doing just that, but his serve - which is so often one of his biggest weapons - failed him on Thursday.
Draper's double fault on match point was the 10th he served throughout the match - double the number of aces he managed - and the 23-year-old only landed 48% of his first serves in the third-round tie.
The Briton was still not short of opportunities to break Fokina, but he only managed to convert four of the 16 chances he fashioned, in spite of his frequent vocalisations as he attempted to hype himself up.
Nevertheless, Draper's run in Monte-Carlo is not quite over, as he is due to resume his men's doubles campaign with Tomas Machac later on Thursday against Romain Arneodo and Manuel Guinard in the second round.
Ben Knapton
