Russia's Daniil Medvedev lost his third-round Indian Wells Masters match to Gael Monfils and his world number one ranking ©Getty Images

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev has lost his world number one ranking after being beaten 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 by Gael Monfils of France in the third round of the Indian Wells Masters.

That means Serbia’s Novak Djokovic - who was unable to travel to the United States for the tournament because he has not been vaccinated against COVID-19 - will resume the position he held two weeks ago at the top of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings.

At his post-match media conference Medvedev, who is competing as a neutral after players from Russia and Belarus were banned from competing under the name or flag of their country in response to the countries invasion of Ukraine, turned his thoughts to the next week’s Miami Open.

"Is it better to be number one for, let’s say one week in your life, or never touch it?" he said.

"I think it's still better to at least touch it.

"Now I know I'm going to lose it, so I have Miami to try to get it back.

“[I'm] usually feeling a little bit better in Miami in terms of tennis, so I'll try to play good there.

"I thought it could give me more motivation, well, I had motivation. It's just that I didn't find my best tennis."

Monfils goes forward to a fourth-round meeting with Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.

Meanwhile Alcaraz’s illustrious 35-year-old compatriot Rafael Nadal - who earned a record 21st men’s singles Grand Slam title earlier this year at the Australian Open - also advanced with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Britain’s Dan Evans - his 400th career ATP Masters 1000 victory.

With Medvedev and Germany’s Tokyo 2020 champion Alexander Zverev - surprisingly beaten by Tommy Paul on Sunday (March 13) - out of the men’s draw, the fourth-seeded Nadal is the highest-ranked player remaining.

Nadal, three-times a champion in this tournament, will next face 17th seed Reilly Opelka, after the American beat Canada's Denis Shapovalov 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.

"I need to keep improving, of course, but it has been a small improvement today," Nadal said.

"That's important because the next round is going to be a very difficult one."

Britain's Cameron Norrie moved into the last 16 with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 over Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili, as did Australia's Nick Kyrgios, who beat Norway's Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4.

In the women’s tournament, Paula Badosa’s defence of her title continued with a 7-6, 6-1 win over fellow Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo to advance to the quarter-finals.

There she will be joined by Canada’s number 18 seed Leylah Fernandez, who defeated the unseeded US player Shelby Rogers 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.