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 number one 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 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 spu

See Full Page