Monday’s play at the Madrid Open has been cancelled due to a power outage affecting parts of Spain and Portugal.
Britain’s Jacob Fearnley was forced off court when play was initially suspended just after 12.30pm local time.
The third-round tie between Fearnley and Grigor Dimitrov had reached a critical stage, Fearnley breaking the 15th seed’s serve to stay in the match, when a loss of power in the local area affected scoreboards and the camera above the court.
A statement posted on the Madrid Open’s X account read: “For reasons beyond the control of the organisation and in order to guarantee general safety, the nationwide power-cut experienced in Spain on Monday April 28 has forced the cancellation of both the day and night sessions at the Mutua Madrid Open.”
An outage spread across Spain and parts of Portugal and France, with work under way to restore power, but the process was expected to be gradual.
Red Electrica, which operates the national electricity grid in Spain, said via X: “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 energisation of the transmission grid as the generating units are connected. We continue working to restore power.”
Fearnley, who trails Dimitrov 4-6 4-5, will now hope to complete his match on Tuesday.
Fearnley’s fellow British players Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper have yet to start their respective third-round matches against Gabriel Diallo and Matteo Berrettini.
