A major power outage in Madrid on Monday forced a suspension of play at the Madrid Open, interrupting several matches and leaving players and spectators in the dark.
The blackout hit while 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov was playing British qualifier Jacob Fearnley in a round of 32 match. Dimitrov was leading 6-4, 5-4 at Manolo Santana Stadium when the lights went out and overhead cameras lost power. A spidercam, left dangling dangerously low over the court, led officials to stop the match for safety reasons.
At Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, fourth seed Coco Gauff had just secured a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Belinda Bencic and was beginning her post-match interview when the microphone lost power. The interview had to be cut short.
The outage also disrupted electronic systems, including the line-calling technology. Spectators posted photos on social media showing pitch-dark hallways inside the Manzanares Park Tennis Center.
According to the ATP, the power failure began at 12:34 p.m. local time. At that moment, two singles matches and one doubles match were underway.
One of those matches featured Matteo Arnaldi, who recently shocked world number one Novak Djokovic. Arnaldi was leading Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 3-2 before the match was suspended.
The Madrid Open organizers posted on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “We are working to restore normality as soon as possible.”
Local reports indicated the power outage also impacted traffic lights, parts of the Madrid metro, and even some airports. Spain’s power grid operator, Red Eléctrica, said it is working with energy providers to resolve the issue quickly.
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