Jack Draper huffed and puffed but wasn't able to battle his way through in the Monte-Carlo Masters with a tense round-three defeat against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Draper, whose unforced errors proved costly throughout the match, crashed out of the tournament after a 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6 loss to the former finalist.

Draper had spoken about how he was keen to improve his clay-court game, and having needed just an hour to see off Marcos Giron in his first match of the tournament, there was plenty of optimism heading into the clash against Davidovich Fokina. A tetchy three hours or so later, the match certainly won't go down as one of Draper's greatest outings on clay.

Draper, now up to sixth in the world rankings, failed to find his rhythm during a tense opening set, which his opponent took 3-6. The Brit had kept in touch with Davidovich Fokina for the first six games, but having been broken to nil midway through, the Spanish player was able to establish a healthy and ultimately unassailable gap.

Comprehensively beaten in the final few games of the first set, Draper hadn't been afraid to let his emotions out, screaming "wake up" to himself after being broken. Visibly upset by the quality of his performance, Draper was able to channel those emotions into his tennis, eventually taking the second by virtue of a nail-biting tiebreak.

During what was a bit of a 'to-me-to-you' set, it was Draper who was left chuckling in the end, as he broke with the final point of the tiebreak to level things up at one set apiece. Chest out, eyes wide - it was clear the recent Indian Wells victor had rediscovered his swagger.

That was despite a medical emergency in the crowd disrupting his momentum, with play stopped after a supporter appeared to faint in the stands. As a result of the gruelling conditions, Davidovich Fokina used the break between set two and three to have a quick outfit change, with Draper left sweating court-side as the 25-year-old made it clear he was in no rush to get back out. Not so many mad dogs, but there certainly was an Englishman out in the midday sun.

Perhaps it was the extra rest, or maybe just his superiority on clay courts, that saw Davidovich Fokina across the line, as he resited the efforts of a defiant Draper to take the final and decisive set. Reflecting on his performance, he said on-court: "That was not my best tennis and not my best mental strategy. Today was a very rollercoaster with my mind.

"I thought I was playing better but my mind was saying a lot of bulls***. I don't know how to control today the emotions. I'm very emotional today to play here. I didn't respect myself first and didn't respect my team and I'm so sorry how I did it today. I'm happy for the win and I'm going to try to improve for tomorrow. I will not tell you but today Jack could've won, he was playing better than me. I was struggling at every point but I knew how to manage to stay on my serve for the first set and try all I have in my body in the last game. I'm happy how I did it, the last game."

It's a quick turnaround for Davidovich Fokina, who will face either Alexei Popyrin or Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals tomorrow.