Madrid Open Suspended by Citywide Power Outage

MADRID, Spain — A power outage that swept across Spain and Portugal caused chaos at the Madrid Open on Monday afternoon, forcing players off the court just as key matches were underway.

Jacob Fearnley, a qualifier, was engaged in a tough battle against 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov when the outage struck. With Dimitrov leading 6-4, 5-4 at Manolo Santana Stadium, the tournament had to suspend all matches that day. “It’s impossible not to overthink it,” Fearnley said as he faced the long wait.

After around 10 hours without power, electricity returned to most homes in Madrid late Monday night, bringing relief to residents. By 8 a.m. Tuesday, power was restored at the Caja Mágica, and play resumed at noon.

Despite the interruption, Fearnley managed to hold his serve when play resumed but struggled mentally as he faced Dimitrov again. Ultimately, Fearnley fell 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in a tightly contested match. “Maybe I played that game a little bit too much in my head,” he reflected.

Meanwhile, players throughout the tournament expressed their surprise at the widespread outage. Frances Tiafoe recalls waiting in the player restaurant when tournament staff started placing candles on tables as they learned that several countries were also without power. “It was like: ‘Oh, now the whole of Europe is out of power,’” he said humorously.

Other competitors, like Jack Draper and Alex de Minaur, took the unforeseen downtime as an opportunity to stroll through Madrid. Draper even found time for a leisurely walk before his match, saying, “I had to walk up 15 flights of stairs.”

As the evening approached, the player restaurant buzzed with activity as athletes awaited transportation back to their hotels. Some found solace in meals, with Fearnley joking about eating “a lot of bread,” while Tiafoe quipped about indulging in “complete bullshit” food during the wait.

Madison Keys summed up the sentiment among players while addressing the unexpected events. “Honestly, at this point, I just added to the list of random things that have happened that delay a tennis match,” she said.

With humor and good spirits, players navigated through the disruption, looking ahead to the rest of the tournament. “I survived Covid and in Spain a country power outage while I was playing a tournament,” Tiafoe said, looking forward years down the line. “You young kids have been through nothing.”