Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was cancelled for the day, leading to Britain`s Jacob Fearnley and other players being taken off court, following a widespread power outage.
A third-round match between Fearnley and Grigor Dimitrov was notably interrupted at a key point when Fearnley had just broken the 15th seed`s serve. The power failure in the vicinity immediately impacted electronic scoreboards and a crucial overhead court camera.
The specific location of the camera meant that even with traditional line judges, the match couldn`t resume because the inactive camera obstructed the players` view.
After waiting on the court for a period, both players were moved indoors while staff attempted to resolve the electrical issue.
The ATP confirmed that electronic line-calling systems were also non-functional due to the outage. Attendees at the Manzanares Park Tennis Centre shared images showing dark corridors within the venue.
Reporting on Sky Sports News, Gigi Salmon described the scene, saying “Everyone is in darkness.” She mentioned seeing players eating by candlelight in the restaurant to be able to see their food.
The tournament organisers officially announced the cancellation of all remaining play for the day, including both day and night sessions. They stated via social media that the decision was made “For reasons beyond the control of the organisation and in order to guarantee general safety,” due to the widespread power cut affecting Spain.
According to Red Electrica, Spain`s power grid operator, restoring electricity could take up to 10 hours. The outage significantly impacted essential services like airports and public transportation across both Spain and Portugal.
Red Electrica provided an update via X, stating, “We are beginning to recover power in the north and south of the peninsula, which is key to gradually meeting the electricity supply.”
They added that the restoration process involves “the gradual energisation of the transmission grid as the generating units are connected,” and confirmed they “continue working to restore power.”
The power failure caused significant disruption in Madrid, including the evacuation of parts of the underground system and non-functional traffic lights. Reports also indicated that thousands of metro passengers in Barcelona needed to be evacuated.
Spanish media reports confirmed that cities like Sevilla and Valencia were also affected. Telephone lines were disrupted nationwide, and locations such as the parliament building in Madrid and numerous metro stations were left without power.
The power cut extended into Portugal, a nation of around 10.6 million people, impacting the capital city of Lisbon and its surrounding regions, as well as northern and southern areas of the country.
Additional reports suggested that some parts of France might also have been affected by the outage.
