Evans beat Moldova's Radu Albot in his first round match 7-6 (7-3) 1-6 1-4Britain's Dan Evans is out of the Japan Open after missing six match points in his second-round match with Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic.
The British number two came back from a set down and then recovered from being 4-2 down in the deciding set to leave himself serving for the match at 5-4.
The 32-year-old is ranked 33 in the world, eight places above Kecmanovic.
Meanwhile, Nick Kyrgios came back from a set down to defeat Poland's Kamil Majchrzak.
The Australian won 3-6 6-2 6-2 to reach Friday's quarter-finals.
Evans, who went out of the Korea Open to Yoshihito Nishioka in September, was 40-0 up and had three further match points in the same game but was unable to take any of them.
The Serb then missed a match point of his own at 6-5, before winning the final four points of the tie-break to take a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-4) win.
Evans also went out of the doubles in the quarter-final alongside Australian partner John Peers, losing 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 10-6 to Mackenzie McDonald, of the USA, and Brazilian Marcelo Melo.
