Novak Djokovic advanced to the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters quarterfinals but the world no. 1 was not so lucky. Djokovic defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 while Andy Murray was eliminated by Albert Ramos-Vinolas 2-6, 6-2, 7-5.

After a quick start, things appeared to be unraveling for Djokovic late in the third set of his match but he fought off two break points with the set leveled at 4-4. Instead, the world no. 2 held serve and quickly struck back breaking the Spaniard to take the set and the match.

Carreno Busta showed fight throughout the nearly two and a half hours of action, particularly facing a 2-4 deficit in the deciding set. He would even play, but it was not enough.

Djokovic acknowledged that the match could have gone either way afterward. “I will take the positives out of it. Mentally, these kinds of wins mean a lot to me”.

The Serb will face David Goffin in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Murray lost a 4-0 lead in the third set in a surprising exit. In just his second match back from an elbow injury, the top seed was certainly not at his best.

The Scot struggled with his serve for much of the day but did jump out to the lead in the match, taking the first set. But Ramos-Vinolas broke Murray’s serve seven times during the match, which was too much for him to overcome.

“I'm disappointed to lose from the position that I was in. Being 4-0 up in the third, I haven't lost many matches like that in my career,” Murray said.

“He obviously started playing better towards the end of the set. I still had a bunch of chances. I guess both of us did, really. I should have been able to do enough to weather that storm a little bit and finish the match off.”

It was a day of upsets as Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych joined Murray in defeat.