A nightmare has returned to haunt Alex de Minaur on Halloween as he suffered a frightful repeat of his Roland Garros capitulation to Alexander Bublik in the Paris Masters.

Just as in the French capital in May, when the Australian was left dumbstruck by a loss from two sets up against the enigmatic Kazakh, de Minaur surrendered control again in their quarter-final clash on Friday to succumb 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 7-5.

The Australian No.1 will doubtless be haunted by a double fault - a horror ninth in all - in the penultimate game that gifted Bublik his second and decisive break of the match as he reached a Masters semi-final for the first time in his maverick career.

For de Minaur, though, it must have felt a real anti-climax a day after he had qualified for the end-of-season ATP Finals, as he sp

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