Jacob Fearnley loses and Jack Draper wins as Madrid Open resumes after power-cut
Scot Fearnley was among those affected by the major outage across Spain and Portugal.
Jacob Fearnley fell to defeat against Grigor Dimitrov after their Madrid Open third-round match resumed following Monday’s power-cut but Jack Draper progressed to the last 16.
Fearnley’s match was suspended at a crucial stage because of the outage, which affected much of Spain and Portugal and forced play to be cancelled for the rest of the day.
The Scot had just broken back in the second set after saving a match point, meaning he had to resume serving to stay in the contest at 6-4 5-4.
Both players looked understandably nervous, and Fearnley had to save a second match point at 5-6 before sending the contest to a tie-break, which went Dimitrov’s way, with the Bulgarian 15th seed securing a 6-4 7-6 (3) victory.
The defeat ended another positive week for Fearnley, who won four matches across qualifying and the main draw and is closing in on a place in the top 50.
The tournament announced on Tuesday morning they were still experiencing problems, with the opening of the gates to fans delayed, before the electricity did come back on.
A statement on the Madrid Open X feed read: “Power supply has been restored at the Caja Magica. To ensure the proper functioning of the entire facility, gates will open at 11:00am, and play will begin at 12:00pm, as originally scheduled.”
The issues meant Monday turned into one of the strangest days at a major tournament.
Women’s seventh seed Mirra Andreeva did manage to finish her match but the players had to call their own lines during the final game, while Coco Gauff revealed she had washed herself with baby wipes after her triumph over Belinda Bencic because of a lack of running water.
The American later opted to walk part of the way back to her hotel because of gridlock in the city, while players ate by candlelight in the on-site restaurant and doubles player Fernando Romboli had to be rescued after getting stuck in a lift.
Draper revealed he had mixed feelings about the delay after benefiting from the retirement of opponent Matteo Berrettini through injury.
The fifth seed recovered from an early break down to take the opening set 7-2 on a tie-break before Berrettini called it a day.
“It’s been difficult having to wait around so long,” Draper told Sky Sports. “I’ve been wanting to compete. I’ve been here for eight days now and I’ve only played one match.
“It was tough having another day off but it was quite nice to not have any socials, not have the phone on. I want to get away from all that anyway. I actually ended up reading a book for once.”
Spanish power distributor Red Electrica said more than 99 per cent of the country’s power had been restored by 6am on Tuesday, with the cause of the unprecedented outage still being investigated.
The delay meant a bumper schedule on Tuesday, and second seed Iga Swiatek survived another close battle, this time with Russian Diana Shnaider, who she eventually saw off 6-0 6-7 (3) 6-4.
Australian Open champion Madison Keys was a 6-2 6-3 winner over Donna Vekic while, in the men’s draw, surprise Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik is having another strong Masters 1000 run, beating Alexander Bublik 6-3 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
Sixth seed Alex De Minaur defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-3 7-6 (3), with Tommy Paul, who next faces Draper, and Frances Tiafoe also recording victories.
There was defeat, though, for British number three Cameron Norrie, who has been struggling with illness and lost out 2-6 6-4 6-4 against Canadian lucky loser Gabriel Diallo.
