Coco Gauff shared how things got even worse for her and other players at the Madrid Open after a major power cut. She revealed that not only did the power go out, but the water stopped too, forcing her to take unusual measures to stay fresh and clean.
A power cut affected “the whole of the Iberian Peninsula and part of France,” according to Portuguese electricity network operator REN, and halted matches shortly after 10:30 a.m. GMT. As a result, Madrid Open organizers eventually called off the rest of the day’s action four hours later.
Gauff sat down for a conversation with the media after her win over Belinda Bencic and opened up about the struggles she and other players were facing at the WTA 1000 and ATP Masters 1000 tournament. She said:
“I just had to take baby wipes and wipe myself and spray some perfume and call it a day. I don’t think we’re even going to be able to go back to the hotel because the traffic lights are out.”
“It’s just crazy how much we depend on electricity. It’s really insane and puts it in perspective. Also makes me think about the humans before electricity and how impressive that is,” she added.
Only three matches were completed on Monday before the outage. Coco Gauff defeated Belinda Bencic, and Mirra Andreeva beat Yuliia Starodubtseva to reach the quarterfinals, while on the men’s side, Matteo Arnaldi defeated Damir Dzumhur to advance to the fourth round.
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Edited by Pritha Ghosh
