Monday’s play cancelled as power outage hits Madrid Open

Lights and toilets at the tennis tournament were affected by the power cut while matches were suspended

The Madrid Open was forced to suspend play on Monday after the tennis tournament was hit by the vast power outage across Spain and Portugal.

The 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and his British opponent Jacob Fearnley had to leave the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power. The round-of-32 match at the Manolo Santana Stadium – where Dimitrov led Fearnley 6-4, 5-4 – had to be stopped due to a spidercam being left hanging too close to the court.

Fourth seed Coco Gauff, who beat Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals, had her post-match interview at the Arantxa Sánchez Stadium cut short with the microphone losing power. Electronic line-calling systems were also affected by the power cut, the ATP said, while spectators shared pictures of dark hallways at the Manzanares Park Tennis Center.

Siobhan Baker, a British tennis fan, told The Independent: “We were in the centre court watching Jacob Fearnley and Gregor Dimitrov [when] the TV screens went out, so they suspended play. They couldn’t resume play because the camera is ... dangling over one side of the court.

All play was suspended in Madrid during the blackout (AP)

Fans walk through the dark underpasses beneath the Caja Mágica stadium (Getty Images)

“We went out to grab a beer assuming that it [the power cut] was just here, and the electricity was going to be back on quite quickly. When we went inside, on the stairs, that was all quite dark. There was briefly no water, so you couldn’t flush the toilets or anything.

“When it first happened, we thought it was fine because we have day tickets and there were meant to be a number of games on today. But as the hours have ticked on, we just want to watch tennis now. The card machines to buy any food and drink aren’t working and we only had 20 euro, which has gone now.”

The ATP said in a statement: “Two singles matches and one doubles match at the ATP Masters 1000 event were underway when power was lost at 12.34pm local time.”

Matteo Arnaldi, who upset Novak Djokovic on Saturday, was up 6-3, 3-2 against Damir Dzumhur when the round of 32 match was stopped, with the Italian eventually prevailing 6-3, 6-4 as the match continued with the umpire calling the lines.

The rest of the day’s play was eventually postponed entirely “in order to guarantee the safety of the players, fans and personnel at the Caja Mágica,” the organisers said.

Local media said the power outage also affected traffic lights, some airports and part of the Madrid underground. Spanish power grid operator Red Eléctrica said it was working with energy companies to restore power.

Additional reporting by Reuters