Proceedings at the 2025 Madrid Open took a bizarre turn on Monday, as a nationwide power outage led to play being cancelled for the rest of the day.
Several parts of Europe, including Spain and Portugal were affected by a massive power cut that left millions without power. Both nations have been working hard to restore the electricity as Portugal’s grid operator, REN, said that "extreme temperature variations" had produced a "rare atmospheric phenomenon" that caused the issue.
Brazilian star trapped in elevator at onset of power outage
Doubles specialist Fernando Romboli found himself stranded in an elevator for 30 minutes at the initial stage of the outage, according to a report from L'Equipe. The 36-year old had entered the elevator just as the power outage hit several parts of the country, at around 12:30pm local time.
Unaware of the power cuts across the nation at the time, Romboli was forced to remain in the elevator as authorities scrambled to release him. The World No.62 in doubles was eventually able to escape after being stuck in the lift for half an hour, as he made his exit at around 1pm local time.
The power outage occurred just as American tennis prodigy Coco Gauff was being interviewed following her round of 16 win over Belinda Bencic. The World No.4 looked visibly startled as her microphone cut off and the lights went out, causing the interview to come to a premature end.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.