Food by candlelight & no showers – how Spain’s power cut united tennis stars

When the power went out, Mirra Andreeva had just stepped up to the baseline to compete for a spot in the Madrid Open quarter-finals.

Millions of people in Spain, Portugal, and some of France were without power as a result of a severe outage, which caused chaos in many areas.

The scoreboards also went dark during the Spanish tennis tournament, where players and the chair umpire were left to call the lines.

The “spider cam” that hovers above the court stopped right in the players’ eyelines, preventing them from serving, on the main court where Britain’s Jacob Fearnley was about to serve to stay in the match against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Russia’s Andreeva celebrated the victory with a tearful smile as she acknowledged that it wasn’t easy and that it was “Oh, Mirra, just please, please do everything in your power to just take this game and finish this match.”

Brazilian doubles player Fernando Romboli claimed he was stuck in a lift for 30 minutes while traveling across Spain as traffic lights went out and trains stopped running.

With the match set to go up to 6-4, 5-4 in Dimitrov’s favor, Fearnley and Dimitrov had to leave the court, while Andreeva, Coco Gauff, and Italian Matteo Arnaldi both came out on top.

The most challenging aspect of my match has so far been not having a shower afterwards,” American Gauff said on Monday.

“I simply had to take baby wipes, wipe myself, spray some perfume, and call it a day because there is no running water.”

Some players left the players’ restaurant to practice before the lack of natural light made it impossible to continue, according to photos posted on social media.

Everyone is talking together, according to Andreaeva, but it’s also kind of fun because everyone is using flashlights.

The atmosphere is “a little more friendly,” he said.

Gauff agreed, saying that everyone is zoned in and that we all understand that the majority of our matches are being played.

I was talking to Frances [Tiafoe], Mirra [Shnaider], Maddy [Keys], and more recently, I was talking to Mirra [Shnaider].

Midway through Monday afternoon, some players expressed concern about being able to return home.

While Gauff posted an Instagram story of gridlocked traffic, Andreeva joked that she didn’t want to sleep in the gym and that she “got out of the car after one hour 45 minutes’ slowly moving and just walked to the hotel.”

Daria Saville, an Australian tennis player, returned to her hotel after missing power, light, and hot water while attending the WTA 125 in Lleida, Catalonia.

The worst part is that my best friend is visiting Vic, an hour away from Barcelona, to play the tournament in, Saville said in a TikTok.

She has been stranded on a train for 11 hours, and they have no food or anything, according to the report. I’m in a terrible mood.