Balls down and put your racket on the side as Madrid Open organisers suspend matches due to a power blackout in Spain and Portugal.
As millions of people in both countries are either left stranded, moneyless due to the cause of ATM’s not working, and networkless due to network signals.
The Portuguese energy company REN has informed the public that the cause of the issue is a “Rare atmospheric phenomenon “related to variations in temperature. Both countries are putting their heads together to solve the issue as they are having back-to-back emergency cabinet meetings. Spain’s Interior Ministry has declared a national emergency and has deployed 30,000 police officers across the country to maintain order.
In the tournament, Jacob Fearnley had this match in the bag as he had a point in the third round against Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian was 6-4, 5-4 down when everything went blank, and the match was forced to be abandoned.
Sky Sports reporter Gigi Salmon explained that the organisers did not want to bring more people on site until they knew what was happening, so they ordered that players who are already at the venue should not leave, and players who are at the hotel should stay in the hotel until they get an alert from the team.
“It was safer to keep everyone here until they knew what was happening. As the night was about to draw in, it is understood that the organising team did not want to bring more people to the site” She also added that players struggled to buy food unless they had cash, and they had to eat using a candle to assist with light. Some players could not take a hot shower because of the crisis at hand. “There was no power to take a shower, they could not use the practice courts, and they were eating their food using candlelight “
The Madrid Open organisers later posted on Instagram that the power issue has been sorted out and restored in some parts of the country. “Power supply has been restored at the Caja Mágica. To ensure the proper functioning of the entire facility, gates will open at 11:00 AM, and play will begin at 12:00 PM, as originally scheduled.” Jack Draper , Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley will be back in court action as they fight for their quarter-final spots.
