Apr 28, 2025, 08:03 AM ET — Okay, so picture this: you’re Coco Gauff, fresh off a win, ready for a shower at the Madrid Open, but surprise! The locker room’s as pitch black as a cave, and guess what? No water either. Madness, right?
“So I just had to take baby wipes and wipe myself,” she laughs. “Sprayed some perfume, called it a day.” Classic Coco, really.
Just before the blackout turned everything topsy-turvy, she managed to defeat Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2. And then, poof, lights out! She was mid-interview, and suddenly it was radio silence. She tosses up an Instagram story—a dim room with one lonely emergency light. Kind of eerie, honestly.
Here’s the funny bit: matches were mid-swing when the power pulled a vanishing act at 12:34 p.m. Boom, spider cam’s left dangling like some weird tech piñata. ATP chimed in, “Yeah, can’t use our fancy electronic line calls now.”
Organizers? Scrambling, saying, “Alright folks, all activities are paused. Safety first!” So, everyone got booted out, just like that.
Play’s picking back up Tuesday. There’s still games left in the draw, all tangled up. Grigor Dimitrov’s edge on Jacob Fearnley, Matteo Arnaldi squaring off with Damir Dzumhur—just a mix of chaos. They switched to manual line calls—yep, doing it old school. Arnaldi wins 6-3, 6-4, by the way, if anyone’s keeping score.
Meanwhile, Spain and Portugal are practically on pause—trains, traffic lights, you name it. Spanish power folks are like, “Yeah, this might last 10 hours, hold tight.” Not a word on what went wrong, though.
Coco also shared a pic of candles—they’re going medieval, I guess. “We might not make it back to the hotel—traffic lights are out,” she goes on, “Crazy how dependent we are on electricity, isn’t it?”
Oh, and before the blackout show, Mirra Andreeva took down Yuliia Starodubtseva, 6-1, 6-4. Iga Swiatek? Chilling in the darkness, waiting for her match against Diana Shnaider. Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka was set to meet Peyton Stearns later on.
It’s a mess of a day, right? Wild how one power cut can turn things so upside down.
