WATCH: Madrid Open plunged into darkness as national power outage causes cancellation on Monday

Oli Dickson Jefford
Court Manolo Santana at the Madrid Open.
Court Manolo Santana at the Madrid Open.

The Madrid Open was brought to a standstill on Monday after being affected by a major power outage that has caused huge disruption across Spain and Portugal.

The tournament was just over an hour into Monday’s Order of Play when the power supply failed, bringing the event to a halt, with major electricity failures across the whole site.

Grigor Dimitrov and Jacob Fearnley were taken off Court Manolo Santana, the main stadium inside the Caja Magica, after it emerged the electronic line calling system was not working.

There was also a further issue on Court Manolo Santana concerning a spider camera, which appeared to be stuck hanging over the centre of the court.

Further incidents include Coco Gauff’s winner’s speech on Court Arantxa Sanchez being disrupted by the failure, with the on-court microphone and courtside billboards switching off.

Footage inside the Caja Magica complex further shows the lack of working lights on site, with spectators forced to use flashlights on their phones to guide them through darkened areas.

It has since emerged that the issue is not solely connected to the Madrid Open and has affected large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, with huge disruption reported across Spain and Portugal, and also in some areas of France.

Reports have claimed that IT systems and even traffic lights have stopped working, in one of the most significant outages faced by the two countries.

On court in Madrid, WTA world No 4 Gauff will be among those relieved to complete her match before the disruption took hold.

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The American defeated Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2 to reach the quarter-final, while seventh seed Mirra Andreeva had completed a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Yuliia Starodubtseva before action was brought to a grinding halt.

However, there will be huge frustration for ATP 15th seed Dimitrov, who had held a match point and failed to serve out the match before the power failure.

The Bulgarian was leading qualifier Fearnley 6-4, 5-4 when the incident took place.

Reports from the site indicate that food stalls have been forced to use cash only and are using lights to work, while there is no indication on when the issue could be resolved.

The Estoril Open, an ATP Challenger event held in Portugal, also appears to have been affected by the major outage.

Action at the event started on Monday, with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Nuno Borges, and Joao Fonseca among the biggest names entered in the tournament.

Play cancelled

Approximately three hours after the disruption began, the Madrid Open confirmed that play would be cancelled for the day due to the issue.

The tournament statement read: “For reasons beyond the control of the organisation and in order to guarantee general safety, the nationwide power-cut experienced in Spain on Monday 28 April has forced the cancellation of both the day and night sessions at the Mutua Madrid Open.”

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