"All of this is just emergency light": Coco Gauff shares shower experience while dealing with power failure at Madrid Open

America’s tennis star Coco Gauff has opened up about the difficulty she faced during the power outage, which impacted several countries in Europe. On Monday, as many as four countries on the continent, including Spain, Portugal and France, suffered a massive power failure. Due to the ongoing power failure, the remaining matches of the day were cancelled.

Gauff featured in the fourth-round contest of the ongoing Madrid Open earlier in the day, where she defeated Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-2. Right after the match, Gauff was having an on-court interview during which the electricity went off.

The reigning world number four, in a video shared on the social media platform Instagram, stated that she had to take the show in the dark after the match. “There’s literally no power. I’m literally in the locker room about to take a shower,” she said. “All of this is just emergency light right here but over here there is no power where the showers are. I’m about to take a shower and I’ll let you know how it goes.” The caption of her post was: “Apparently the power is out in most of the country and in Portugal I finished my match right before it happened thank God.”

The results are an important one for Gauff as she can reclaim the third spot in the WTA rankings, which she lost to Jessica Pegula after a series of unimpressive performances. The one-time Grand Slam winner is now set to face Russia’s Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinal of the event. The 17-year-old cemented her spot in the last eight after beating Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 6-4. It will be the third meeting between the two players. In the previous two meetings, Gauff has had a clear edge, winning on both occasions. Their most recent meeting came in the second round of the US Open in 2023, where Gauff won in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2.