Food by candlelight and no showers at Madrid Open
Coco Gauff had just completed her victory over Belinda Bencic when the power went out at the Madrid Open
- Published
Mirra Andreeva had just stepped up to the baseline to serve for a place in the Madrid Open quarter-finals when the power went out.
A sweeping outage left millions in Spain, Portugal and parts of France without power, causing chaos across many regions.
At the Spanish tennis tournament, the electronic line-calling system went down, with players and the chair umpire left to call the lines, while the scoreboards also went dark.
On the main court, where Britain's Jacob Fearnley was about to serve to stay in the match against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the 'spider cam' that hovers above court stopped right in the players' eyeline, preventing them from serving.
Russia's Andreeva served out victory but admitted afterwards it wasn't easy, saying: "It was 15-40 on my serve and I was like, Oh, Mirra, just please, please do everything in your power to just take this game and finish this match."
Across Spain, traffic lights went out and trains stopped running, with Brazilian doubles player Fernando Romboli posting on Instagram that he was stuck in a lift, external at the tournament for 30 minutes.
Fearnley and Dimitrov had to leave court with the match poised at 6-4 5-4 in Dimitrov's favour, while Andreeva, Coco Gauff and Italian Matteo Arnaldi managed to complete their respective victories.
"So far, the toughest thing has been not been able to shower after my match," American Gauff said on Monday.
"There's no running water so I just had to take baby wipes and wipe myself, spray some perfume and call it a day.
"It's just crazy how much we depend on electricity. It's really insane."
Third seed Taylor Fritz had a novel suggestion to fix the power
Photographs on social media showed the players' restaurant lit by candles, with some heading out to practice before the lack of natural light made it impossible to continue.
"Everyone is using the phones with flashlights," Andreeva said, "but it's also kind of fun because everyone is talking together.
"The atmosphere is a little bit more friendly."
Gauff agreed, saying: "Most of the time we're trying to prepare for our matches, everyone's zoned in and we all understand that.
"I was talking to Frances [Tiafoe], talking to Mirra, too, Diana [Shnaider], Maddy [Keys].
"This is the type of situation, it's light-hearted, nobody knows when they're going to go on."
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Play was eventually cancelled midway through Monday afternoon but some players were concerned about being able to get home.
Andreeva joked she did not want to sleep in the gym while Gauff posted an Instagram story of gridlocked traffic, saying she "got out of the car after one hour 45 minutes' slowly moving and just walked to the hotel".
Australia's Daria Saville, playing at the WTA 125 in Lleida, Catalonia, returned to her hotel but was without power, light and hot water.
"The worst part is my best friend is travelling from Madrid to play the tournament here, which is like an hour away from Barcelona in a town called Vic," Saville said in a TikTok.
"She's been stuck on the train for 11 hours and I'm pretty sure they have no food, no nothing. I feel terrible."
By Tuesday morning, the power had been restored throughout the vast majority of the affected areas.
Phone flashlights came in handy during the blackout
Power was restored at the Madrid Open on Tuesday morning
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- Published28 April
