Sweeping power cuts across Spain and Portugal cause chaos as major tournament SUSPENDED with ‘next Andy Murray’ affected
NATIONWIDE power cuts have wreaked havoc at the Madrid Open with play suspended.
Several major cities across Spain and Portugal are currently in blackout.
Sport has been affected as British tennis star Jacob Fearnley was locked in battle with Grigor Dimitrov when a loud bang was heard between points.
The umpire immediately halted play as the scoreboard and the electronic line calling system went down.
Players and fans were initially left perplexed as official Adel Nour incredibly offered to judge the ball in or out from his chair courtside.
But Fearnley then realised the spider cam which hangs above the net was stuck and in danger of being hit.
The umpire then announced a power outage and both players headed to the locker rooms.
Play was then called off until further notice and there has been no tennis at the Masters 1000 tournament for nearly TWO HOURS.
But it is not just the Madrid Open impacted as entire cities across Spain and Portugal have been left without electricity and the internet.
Entire airports and train systems have ground to a halt with both nations in chaos.
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There is major congestion in places like Madrid as traffic lights stopped working.
The capital’s Barajas Airport remains without power, Valencia’s metro network has been axed for the day and the carnage has spread to Seville, Barcelona, and Pamplona.
Data from Spain’s electricity grid shows a huge drop off in a matter of seconds.
Spanish national grid operator Red Electrica have announced it is urgently working to restore power.
They said there had been a system failure across the entire peninsula.
Fearnley, 23, from Edinburgh has been dubbed the “next Andy Murray” after a stunning rise up the rankings in the last year.
In 2024, the future star broke a record for most ever ranking places climbed in a 12 months with a jump of 547.
Fearnley is currently the world No68 and made the Australian Open third round earlier this year, beating former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios.