A significant power failure affected the Mutua Madrid Open on Monday, causing an abrupt halt to play. The disruption occurred on a day when all sixteen remaining players in the women`s singles draw were scheduled to compete in the fourth round.
Media outlets reported that the power outage was extensive, potentially affecting the entire nation of Spain and even large parts of Europe, impacting millions of people. While the precise cause was initially unclear, early reports suggested issues within the European electricity grid.
Before the outage began after midday, two of the eight scheduled women`s fourth-round matches had successfully concluded.
Fourth seed Coco Gauff secured a victory over Belinda Bencic with a score of 6-4, 6-2. In another completed match, seventh seed Mirra Andreeva defeated qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-1, 6-4.
World No. 2 Iga Swiatek was observed in the players` lounge, which had gone dark due to the power cut. She was seen talking with her team members while waiting for the potential resumption of play, which ultimately did not happen.
Due to the widespread power issues, all matches that had not been completed by the time of the outage were cancelled for the day and have been pushed to Tuesday.
