The Madrid Open was forced to suspend matches on Monday due to a widespread power outage in Spain.
According to Independent, a vast power outage across Spain also affected the ongoing tennis tournament, the Madrid Open. Matches scheduled for Monday were first suspended and were later cancelled after everything went dark.
The 15th seed, Grigor Dimitrov, and his British opponent, Jacob Fearnley, were forced to leave the court in the middle of a round-of-32 match at the Manolo Santana Stadium after the scoreboard and overhead cameras lost power.
ATP breaks silence on power outage
The Association of Tennis Professionals stated, “Two singles matches and one doubles match at the ATP Masters 1000 event were underway when power was lost at 12.34pm local time.”
“The cut is preventing the use of electronic line calling systems and also left a spider cam dangling over the court inside Manolo Santana Stadium,” it added.
The tournament organisers also said that they had no choice but to cancel all the sporting activities to ensure the safety of players, fans and personnel.
Coco Guaf shares her experience of a power outage
American tennis player Coco Gauff, at the time of the outage, was giving a post-match interview on the court after beating Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2, Arantxa Sánchez, when the sound cut off as the microphone lost power.
Later, after the match, when she was preparing to shower in a dark locker room, she came to know that the water was off too.
Former US Open champion said, “So I just had to take baby wipes and wipe myself,” Gauff said, “and spray some perfume and call it a day.”
She later shared a picture of candles being distributed on the social media and added, “It’s just crazy how much we depend on electricity. It’s really insane and puts it in perspective.”
Power began restoring in most parts of Madrid at night, but the organisers decided to resume play on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
