Madrid Open: Spanish power outage stops play as Jacob Fearnley forced off court

A national power outage has forced play to be suspended for the day at the Madrid Open.

Organisers say there will be no more action on Monday “in order to guarantee general safety”.

Swathes of Spain and Portugal have been without power since about midday local time, affecting public transport, card payments and mobile networks, though power is starting to return in some regions.

Portuguese energy company REN says the outage was caused by a “rare” atmospheric phenomenon, related to variations in temperatures.

Britain’s Jacob Fearnley among those forced off court on Monday.

Fearnley had saved a match point in his third-round encounter against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and was about to serve to stay in the match at 6-4 5-4 down when play was suspended on the main court.

The power cut meant the electronic line-calling system – which has replaced line judges – and scoreboards stopped working.

After a brief delay the umpire announced play would restart, with him making line calls in place of the system.

However, the spider camera which hangs low over the court had become stuck in place and was in the player’s eyelines.

After further discussion the umpire led the players back to the locker room.