The Madrid Open has been forced to cancel the rest of Monday’s day session and all of its evening matches following a significant power cut affecting various parts of Spain, as well as neighboring Portugal.
Energy company REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional) said the severe fault was triggered by ‘extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain.’ They added that this caused ‘anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV)’ which is known as an ‘induced atmospheric vibration.’
As a result, all power supply to the Caga Magica, the venue of the Madrid Open, has been cut with certain areas of the venue going into full darkness. Due to the layout of the venue, some parts are underground which is where fans go to browse the shops or eat food.
“For reasons beyond the control of the organisation and in order to guarantee general safety, the nationwide power-cut experienced in Spain on Monday 28 April has forced the cancellation of both the day and night sessions at the Mutua Madrid Open,” a statement from the Madrid Open on social media reads.
The decision came after the mayor of Madrid warned members of the public to not travel on the roads due to congestion caused by failing traffic lights. The local underground and train services have also been affected. Red Electrica CEO Eduardo Prieto told reporters earlier this afternoon that it could take between six and 10 hours to solve the issue.
16 singles matches were scheduled to take place on Monday at the Madrid Open but only three have been completed before officials pulled the plug on play. In the women’s tournament, fourth seed Coco Gauff defeated Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2, to set up a clash against Mirra Andreeva. Andreeva dropped only five games during her 6-1, 6-4, win over Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva.
As for the men, the only match to be completed featured Matteo Arnaldi, who knocked Novak Djokovic out of the tournament on Saturday. The Italian beat Damir Džumhur 6-3, 6-4. Grigor Dimitrov’s match against Jacob Fearnley briefly resumed after the initial blackout before getting suspended again due to the spider camera becoming stuck in place and it was in the player’s eye-line. The Bulgarian currently leads Fearnley 6-4, 5-4.
Alex de Minaur, Jack Draper, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka were all scheduled to play today.
