Nationwide blackout halts Madrid Open, forces suspension of play

MADRID: A nationwide power outage has brought play to a halt at the Madrid Open on Monday, forcing organisers to suspend all matches for the day to ensure public safety.

The outage, which began around midday local time, has affected large parts of Spain and Portugal, disrupting public transport, mobile networks and card payments, although power has begun to be restored in some areas.

The Portuguese energy company REN attributed the blackout to a ‘rare’ atmospheric event, linked to significant temperature fluctuations.

Among those affected was Britain’s Jacob Fearnley, who had been in the middle of a tense third-round match against Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov.

After saving a match point, Fearnley was about to serve to stay in the match, trailing 6-4, 5-4, when the power failure interrupted the game.

The power cut disrupted the electronic line-calling system and the scoreboards, which are essential for modern tennis.

Following a brief pause, the umpire attempted to continue the match by manually calling the lines, but the spider camera above the court became stuck in place, obstructing players' vision.

This led to another delay before the umpire decided to take the players back to the locker room.

Spain’s national electricity grid operator, Red Eléctrica, confirmed widespread outages and stated it was working to restore power.

In Madrid, reports of non-functioning traffic lights and evacuations of the underground railway system have emerged, with similar issues reported in Portugal.

Fearnley, along with fellow Britons Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper, were among the players scheduled for third-round matches on Monday.

Norrie was set to face Canada’s Gabriel Diallo, while Draper was due to play Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.