By MANU FERNANDEZ Associated Press
MADRID (AP) — Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended Monday due to a major power outage reported in Spain and Portugal.
The ATP Tour said that two singles matches and one doubles match were underway when power went out at 12:34 p.m. local time (1034 GMT).
“The cut is preventing the use of electronic line calling systems and also left a spider cam dangling over the court inside Manolo Santana Stadium,” the ATP added.
Grigor Dimitrov was leading Jacob Fearnley 6-4, 5-4 inside the main stadium when play was stopped. Also, Matteo Arnaldi was leading Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 3-2.
Some players were practicing despite the outage, and a few people remained in the stands to watch.
Two fourth-round women’s matches were completed shortly before the blackout.
Coco Gauff beat Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2, and Mirra Andreeva beat Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-1, 6-4.
Gauff posted an Instagram story showing only an emergency light working in an otherwise dark locker room.
“No power where the showers are. So I’m about to take a shower and I’ll let you all know how it goes,” the American said.
Second-ranked Iga Swiatek “sat in the darkened players’ lounge, talking with members of her team,” ahead of her match against Diana Shnaider, the WTA Tour said.
Swiatek and Shnaider were scheduled to play in the main stadium after the Dimitrov-Fearnley match.
Spanish power grid operator RedElectrica said the Iberian peninsula was affected. It said the incident is being assessed and responded to.
The countries have a combined population of over 50 million people. It is not immediately clear how many people are affected.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis