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During the Madrid Open, a significant power outage disrupted a pivotal match between Britain’s Jacob Fearnley and Grigor Dimitrov, leading to the cancellation of all play for the day.
The match was at a tense juncture when Fearnley broke the serve of the 15th seed, Dimitrov. Unfortunately, the outage affected both scoreboards and the camera positioned above the court, halting the game.
The failure of the power supply rendered it impossible to continue, even with line judges present, as the camera was stuck in the players’ line of sight. After waiting on court for a while, both players were taken indoors while the situation was assessed.
The ATP confirmed that the electronic line calling systems were also compromised due to the outage. Fans shared images depicting darkened hallways at the Manzanares Park Tennis Centre, adding to the sense of chaos.
Commentator Gigi Salmon noted on Sky Sports News the extent of the disruption: “Everyone is in darkness. I walked past the player restaurant and the players are eating by candlelight so that they can actually see what they’re eating.”
The tournament organizers eventually made the decision to cancel all events for the day. They announced via social media: “For reasons beyond the control of the organisation and in order to guarantee general safety, the nationwide power cut experienced in Spain on Monday 28 April has forced the cancellation of both the day and night sessions at the Mutua Madrid Open.”
The situation was dire, with Spanish power grid operator Red Eléctrica estimating that power restoration could take up to 10 hours, significantly impacting airports and public transportation throughout the region.
In a communication on X, Red Eléctrica stated, “We are beginning to recover power in the north and south of the peninsula, which is key to gradually meeting the electricity supply. This process involves the gradual energization of the transmission grid as the generating units are connected. We continue working to restore power.”
The blackout was widely felt, affecting parts of the Madrid underground, halting traffic light operations, and causing the evacuation of thousands from the metro service in Barcelona. Reports confirmed that cities like Sevilla and Valencia also suffered from the outage, disrupting telephone lines and plunging various public services into darkness.
In Portugal, areas including the capital, Lisbon, faced similar power issues, while even parts of France seemed to be impacted according to reports.
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Source
www.skysports.com