The Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament experienced an unexpected interruption on Monday when a widespread power outage occurred. This happened on a crucial day for the women`s event, with all 16 remaining players scheduled to compete in the fourth round.
Reports from media outlets indicated that the significant power failure was not limited to Madrid but affected large areas across Spain and parts of the wider European region, impacting millions of people. While the initial cause was not immediately clear, early information suggested potential issues within the European electric grid.
As a direct consequence of the loss of power, tournament officials announced the cancellation of all matches that were still scheduled for Monday. These postponed matches have been rescheduled to take place the following day, on Tuesday.
The outage began in the afternoon, shortly after two of the planned eight women`s fourth-round encounters had been completed. Fourth seed Coco Gauff successfully advanced by defeating Belinda Bencic with a score of 6-4, 6-2. Similarly, seventh seed Mirra Andreeva secured her spot in the next round after winning against qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-1, 6-4.
Among the players waiting to compete was World No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who was seen in the players` lounge, which had gone dark due to the power failure. Swiatek was waiting for a suspended men`s match between Grigor Dimitrov and qualifier Jacob Fearnley on Manolo Santana Stadium to conclude before her own match.
Rupert Caldwell