Cameron Norrie was hunting a second clay-court title of the year after winning in Rio de Janeiro in FebruaryBritish number one Cameron Norrie was beaten in the last 16 of the Barcelona Open by Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Seventh seed Norrie, 27, controlled the first set and had openings in a tight second but Musetti fought back to win 3-6 6-4 6-1 in the clay-court event.
At 4-4 in the second set Norrie moved to 15-40 on Musetti's serve, but missed the break-point chances and had his own serve broken in the next game.
British number two Dan Evans plays Russian Karen Khachanov later.
Musetti, the 21-year-old world number 20, has achieved his best career results on clay and beat Novak Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters last week in a run to the quarter-finals.
That run was ended by compatriot Jannik Sinner, who he will face again in the quarter-finals in Barcelona.
Sinner beat Japanese 16th seed Yoshihito Nishioka in three sets while second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas eased past Canada's Denis Shapovalov 6-3 6-2.
Meanwhile at the Bavarian International in Munich,Alexander Zverev was beaten 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 by Australian world number 82 Christopher O'Connell.
