Alejandro Davidovich Fokina knocked Jack Draper out of the Monte Carlo Masters and then described his three-set victory as “very s---”.
British No 1 Draper struggled with his serve, making 10 double faults in the last-16 match, but Davidovich Fokina was also unhappy with how he played in the 6-3 6-7 (4) 6-4 win.
The Spaniard made 57 unforced errors and apologised afterwards to his team for how he behaved during the “rollercoaster” victory.
He told Ziggo Sport: “Today was a very s--- match. For myself, my part, I didn't act very good, it was a rollercoaster, very emotional game today. For his part, he didn't serve very good today, he was a little bit nervous maybe.
“We didn’t play our best tennis today. There is another way you can win these matches when not playing as good as I did the last two matches, today was not a good one, my attitude was very bad on court, I feel sorry for myself and my team, they had to be here three hours, watching me and my attitude.
Davidovich Fokina is one of the more dramatic characters on the tour and has previously caught the attention with his questionable decision making at Wimbledon.
In 2023, he lost a fifth-set tiebreaker against Holger Rune after deciding to go for an underarm serve on 8-8, which his opponent easily put away before taking victory.
He also almost blew a two-sets lead against Hubert Hurkacz when going for an unnecessary tweener on match point, only to come through in a fifth-set tiebreak.
Draper, who has the fifth seed after winning Indian Wells last month, had dispatched Marcos Giron in a comfortable 6-1 6-1 victory on Tuesday but couldn’t back that up in his second clay court match of the season.
Davidovich Fokina is a more experienced player on the surface and is a former finalist at Monte Carlo. He will play Alexei Popyrin, who defeated fourth seed Casper Ruud, in the quarter-final.
