Play Suspended At Madrid Open Due To Power Outage In Spain
Action was suspended at the Madrid Open on Monday due to a major power outage in Spain, and Portugal.
Two singles matches, and one doubles match were underway when power went out at 12:34 pm.
Grigor Dimitrov was leading Jacob Fearnley 6-4, 5-4 inside the main stadium when play was stopped. Also, Matteo Arnaldi was leading Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 3-2.
Some players were practicing despite the outage, and a few people remained in the stands to watch.
Two fourth-round women’s matches were completed shortly before the blackout.
The ATP confirmed that the power outage prevented the use of electronic line calling systems.
“The cut is preventing the use of electronic line calling systems and also left a spider cam dangling over the court inside Manolo Santana Stadium,”
Coco Gauff defeated Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2, and Mirra Andreeva beat Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-1, 6-4.
Gauff posted an Instagram story showing only an emergency light working in an otherwise dark locker room.
She wrote: “No power where the showers are. So I’m about to take a shower and I’ll let you all know how it goes,”
Swiatek and Shnaider were scheduled to play in the main stadium after the Dimitrov-Fearnley match.
Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Electrica confirmed power outages across the country, and said it was working to restore electricity.
According to reports, The Spanish and Portuguese governments met to discuss the outage, which also briefly affected parts of France, and a crisis committee was set up in Spain.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited electricity transmission operator Red Eléctrica’s control centre.
The European Commission said it was in contact with the authorities in Spain and Portugal and the European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E to try to establish the cause of the outage.
In 2003, a similar power outage happened when a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy, and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.
Play Suspended At Madrid Open Due To Power Outage In Spain is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
