Paris Masters: De Minaur saves match point, comes from 5-2 down in third to beat Murray yet again

Australian Alex de Minaur maintained his hoodoo over former world No 1 Andy Murray as he beat the Scot 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5 to advance to the second round of Paris Masters at the Accor Arena on Monday.

De Minaur, ranked No 13, trailed 5-2 in the third set and, just as he did in Beijing earlier this month, saved a match point at 5-4 to beat Murray for the sixth time in their six meetings, with the 36-year-old smashing his racket in frustration as his final forehand hit the tape and bounced back his side of the net.

The Australian will face the winner of the match between Serb lucky loser Dusan Lajovic and French wildcard Benjamin Bonzi next.

Murray misses chances in first and third sets

Murray will wonder how this one got away from him.

The Scot recovered an early break in the first set to earn three set points at 5-4 but De Minaur, as resilient as ever, saved them all and when it came to the tiebreak, he snatched it 7-5 to move ahead.

Murray bounced back well to break in the first game of the second set but immediately dropped serve, his first serve misfiring too often. Games stayed with serve to 4-4 when Murray suddenly lifted his aggression, ripping the ball from the baseline and breaking in the ninth game, before serving out the set.

The third set was a roller-coaster as Murray broke twice to lead 5-2. But just as in Beijing, he couldn’t see it home, despite having a match point at 5-4, when he missed a tame forehand. De Minaur, scampering around the court and retrieving everything, continued to ask the questions and Murray could not get over the line.

At 5-6, Murray led 40-15 on serve and looked set to take it to a deciding tiebreak but De Minaur forced him into more errors and when Murray’s final forehand landed short, the match was over, the only thing remaining being Murray smashing his racket in pure frustration.

Paris Masters, other first-round results (Accor Arena, EUR 5.779.335, most recent results first):

• Marton Fucsovics vs. Alexander Zverev
• Ugo Humbert vs. Marcos Giron
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Sebastian Korda vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Gael Monfils vs. Francisco Cerundolo
• Dusan Lajovic vs. Benjamin Bonzi
• J.J. Wolf vs. Mackenzie McDonald
• Daniel Altmaier vs. Arthur Fils
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Stan Wawrinka vs. Dominic Thiem
• Tommy Paul vs. Richard Gasquet
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Jordan Thompson vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Taylor Fritz vs. Sebastian Baez
• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Adrian Mannarino
• Laslo Djere vs. Luca Van Assche: monday
• Karen Khachanov (16) beat Max Purcell: 6-4, 6-4
• Roman Safiullin (Q) beat Alexandre Muller (WC): 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Alexander Bublik beat Frances Tiafoe (14): 6-3, 6-4
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Christopher Eubanks: 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4
• Nicolas Jarry beat Alexei Popyrin: 7-5, 7-6 (6)
• Roberto Bautista Agut beat Jiri Lehecka: 6-4, 6-2
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Ben Shelton (15): 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3