Power outage halts play at Madrid; remaining matches pushed to Tuesday
Update 5:00 pm local time: All of Monday's remaining matches have been cancelled for the day. You can find Tuesday's schedule here.
MADRID -- On the day when all 16 women remaining were scheduled to play, the lights went out at the Mutua Madrid Open.
There were media reports that the widespread power outage was nationwide in Spain -- as well as most of the rest of Europe, affecting many millions. Initially, the cause was unknown but early reports cited issues with the European electric grid.
Two of the women’s eight fourth-round matches were completed just ahead of the blackout, which began after noon.
No. 4 seed Coco Gauff defeated Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2, while No. 7 Mirra Andreeva was a 6-1, 6-4 winner over qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva.
World No. 2 Iga Swiatek sat in the darkened players’ lounge, talking with members of her team. Swiatek was awaiting the conclusion of the suspended match between Grigor Dimitrov and qualifier Jacob Fearnley in Manolo Santana Stadium.
