Play was unexpectedly halted at the Mutua Madrid Open on Monday following a power outage. The disruption occurred on a day specifically scheduled for all 16 remaining women`s players to compete in the Round of 16.
According to media reports, the power failure was extensive, potentially affecting Spain nationwide and even reaching other parts of Europe, impacting millions. Initial causes were unclear, though early reports cited potential issues within the European electric grid system.
Despite the widespread outage, two of the eight scheduled women`s fourth-round matches were successfully completed just before the power went out, which happened after noon local time.
In one of these completed matches, the No. 4 seed, Coco Gauff, defeated Belinda Bencic with a score of 6-4, 6-2.
The other match saw No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva secure a victory over qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva, winning 6-1, 6-4.
The outage affected many players awaiting their matches, including World No. 2 Iga Swiatek. Swiatek was reportedly seen in the darkened players` lounge with her team, waiting for a men`s match between Grigor Dimitrov and qualifier Jacob Fearnley to finish on Manolo Santana Stadium before her own match could potentially start.
As a result of the power failure, all remaining matches scheduled for Monday were officially cancelled and have been postponed to Tuesday`s schedule.
