Jack Draper crashed out at the last-16 stage of the Monte-Carlo Masters with a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4 defeat by Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Draper, who dispatched Marcos Giron in a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 victory on Tuesday, struggled with his serve, producing 10 double faults.
“Today I didn’t feel at my best or at my best mentally with my strategy,” Davidovich Fokina said on court after the win, in which he made 57 unforced errors to his opponent’s 46. “It was a rollercoaster with my mind, I didn’t know how to control the emotions and I didn’t respect myself or my team. I am so sorry with how I did today and I am happy with the win and I will be ready for tomorrow.
“Today, Jack could have won because he was playing better than me, I was struggling with every point but I knew how to stay on my serve and try with all my body in the last game, I am happy with how I did in the last game.”
Draper was playing catch up throughout the first set after falling 2-0 down, only to level at 2-2 with two flawless games. However, the fifth seed dropped his serve in the eighth game and Davidovich Fokina converted immediately to seal the first set 6-3.
The second set followed a similar pattern, with the 23-year-old falling behind 3-1, but he clawed his way back level with a break of serve. Davidovich Fokina took the set to a tie-break and had a match point when 6-5 before the Briton held his nerve to stake the next three points and level the tie.
In the final set the Spaniard went ahead once more as he moved 3-1 clear, with Draper breaking serve in the fifth game to restore parity. Draper served at 5-4 down to try to salvage the tie but a 10th and final double fault consigned him to defeat.
Davidovich Fokina will face Alexei Popyrin in the quarter-finals after the Australian defeated Casper Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, saving two match points en route to victory. Ruud, a beaten finalist here last year, could not convert match points at 5-3 up in the third, with Popyrin storming back for his best win of a disappointing season so far.
Alex de Minaur then made it an Aussie one-two on Court No 2, raising eyebrows with a 6-2, 6-2 demolition of old rival Daniil Medvedev. “I thought I executed really well, just had a slight lapse in concentration,” De Minaur said afterwards. “But apart from that, I thought I was very smart and tactically played the right way.”
Despite the two players being seeded No 8 and 9 in Monte Carlo, De Minaur earned seven breaks of serve in a one-sided affair lasting only 72 minutes, repeating his victory over Medvedev at Roland-Garros last year. He will face Grigor Dimitrov, who overcame Alejandro Tabilo 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Carlos Alcaraz, the second seed, eased past the German qualifier Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-1. He will face rising French star Arthur Fils in the quarter-finals, after Fils defeated the 2023 champion Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-3.
The defending champion, Stefanos Tsitsipas, thrashed Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-1, 6-1 and will next play Lorenzo Musetti, who won an all-Italian battle with Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-2.