Carlos Alcaraz claimed Jack Draper will be a rival for his French Open title despite beating the British No.1 at the Rome Masters.

Madrid finalist Draper admitted he was "struggling" with fatigue after the Spaniard won 6-4 6-4 to reach the semi-finals and guarantee he will be the No.2 seed in Paris.

He also gained his revenge for losing to Draper in their last match in Indian Wells.

But in their first match on clay, world No.5 Draper pushed the reigning French and Wimbledon champion hard in a rollercoaster match. Clinical Alcaraz won all four of his break points while Draper could only convert two out of eight and hit only eight winners.

The British No.1 has still to win a tournament on clay but has won more matches on the surface this year than in the rest of his career.

And Alcaraz said: "Jack I think, he has shown the level he has. He can win against anyone in every tournament. Of course, Jack is No. 5 in the world. He has won one Masters 1000 final, made the final in one of them, as well. He's one of the players who can win the French Open. Any Grand Slam, honestly.

"I think right now in tennis we have a bunch of players who are able to win Grand Slams or make good results. I think the draw right now is really, really open, which is good. So Jack Draper I think is one of them."

Draper had 4-2 in the first set before losing five consecutive games. And he has lacked his usual energy in the Italian capital. "I've been playing the last four weeks now pretty much," he said. "I don't want to think about it or admit it, but probably it has a big effect I think on not just today but throughout the week.

"I've been struggling a little bit, to maintain my quality all throughout the matches. Today against someone like that, you can't have those dips in your standards because you get punished.

"At the end of the day that's not why I lost today. I lost to a better player. I'm very disappointed with the way I performed. I think from a mental and emotional point of view. You could say: 'That's normal, you had a tough four weeks now'. I don't want to be normal. I want to be right up there. It hurts a lot, this kind of loss."

The French Open, where Draper has never won a match, starts on May 25. "I'm looking forward to going to Roland Garros because I haven't been able to play very good tennis there in the past," he said.

"This time hopefully it's a good opportunity for me to go and really put my game on the court and carry on with the momentum where I left off. Definitely after today I'll be very hungry to want to show some really good stuff there."