Power Outage Cancels Most Monday Play In Madrid

Mutua Madrid Open, ATP Tour
Mutua Madrid Open (photo: Florian Heer)

MADRID/WASHINGTON, April 28, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

A significant power outage affecting portions of Spain and Portugal – including Caja Mágica in Madrid – forced the cancellation of Monday’s play at the ATP Masters 1000 Mutua Madrid Open.

There were two ATP Tour singles matches and one doubles match underway when power was lost at 12:34 p.m. (CEST). The outage felt throughout Caja Mágica prevented the usage of electronic line calling systems, and it also left a “spider camera” loitering over the court inside Manolo Santana Stadium, where No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria was facing 68th-ranked British qualifier Jacob Fearnley.

After waiting nearly four hours, tournament organizers finally cancelled the remaining day session matches and all night session play.

“For reasons beyond the control of the organization 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 tournament wrote on its social media platforms.

There were two matches – one third-round singles and one first-round doubles – that were completed. Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi defeated Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 6-3, 6-4, and Americans Christian Harrison and Evan King advanced over Matthew Ebden and John Peers of Australia, 6-4, 7-6 (5).

Meanwhile, in their first meeting, the World No. 16 Dimitrov began well – eight aces, a 70-percent efficiency of scoring points on his first serve and three breaks of Bearnley’s serve – as the match statistics attested.

However, after squandering a match point earlier in the second set at 5-2 (30-40), the power went out with Dimitrov leading 6-4, 5-4, after an hour and 21 minutes of play. Bearnley had just broken Dimitrov to get back on serve in the second set. Soon after, both players were sent off the court by Chair Umpire Adel Nour to wait out the power outage delay and never returned.

According to the ATP Tour website, large portions of both Spain and Portugal were hit by the power outage. It has shut off traffic lights. Additionally, all rail traffic has been halted in Spain and the Metro in both Lisbon and Porto, Portugal is closed.

Around the Caja Mágica

• No. 44 Matteo Arnaldi of Italy backed up his second-round triumph over three-time Madrid champion Novak Djokovic by advancing to the round of 16 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over 63rd-ranked Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in an hour and 44 minutes on Court 5.

Arnaldi saved all five break points he faced and converted two of four chances. He outpointed his opponent 78-63. Arnaldi was serving at 6-3, 3-2 when the power was cut at Caja Mágica. However, he and Dzumhur were able to complete the match.

Next, Arnaldi will face either No. 16 seed Frances Tiafoe of the United States or No. 39 Alexandre Muller of France.

• Among the ATP third-round singles matches that were cancelled Monday were: No. 17 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece versus No. 10 seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy; No. 91 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain versus 78th-ranked Canadian lucky loser Gabriel Diallo; No. 16 seed Frances Tiafoe of the United States versus No. 39 Alexandre Muller of France; No. 6 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia versus No. 29 seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada; No. 24 Karen Khachanov of Russia versus No. 11 Tommy Paul of the United States; and No. 5 seed Jack Draper of Great Britain versus No. 30 seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy.

Monday’s Mutua Madrid Open results

Tuesday’s Mutua Madrid Open order of play

By the numbers

Twenty-six years after Christian Ruud defeated Petr Korda in the first round of the 1999 ATP Masters 1000 at Miami, their sons met on court for the first time as World No. 15 Casper Ruud took on World No. 24 Sebastian Korda. Ruud defeated Korda, 6-3, 6-3, in an hour and 10 minutes to record his 150th career win on clay Sunday night on Manolo Santana Stadium.

“Quotable …”

“You know we had never played each other before, so that’s quite unusual at this stage of my career that I had never played someone. … You know, honestly, I thought [my father] had lost to Petr before. So, I thought I was going out to seek revenge for the family but this is even a better statistic for us. We’ll try to keep it alive for as long as possible. It’s fun to see certain situations like this where our father and son had played before and are doing well. It’s a feud out there! I’m sure Seb and I will play many more times in our careers. I’m sure he’ll catch up and get a win over the Ruud family.”

– World No. 15 Casper Ruud of Norway, during his on-court interview after defeating World No. 24 Sebastian Korda Sunday night 26 years after his father, Christian Ruud, defeated Korda’s father, Petr Korda in Miami.

 

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