Tennis star trapped in elevator as maintenance crew prise doors open after Spain and Portugal hit by huge blackout
TENNIS star Fernando Romboli was trapped in an elevator as a power outage wreaked havoc at the Madrid Open.
The electrical issue struck much of Spain and Portugal on Monday, with the former declaring a national emergency.
Several tennis players were left stranded at Madrid’s Caja Magica venue as the concourse was plunged into darkness.
Romboli, 36, was affected worse than most – having entered a lift mere seconds before the power cut.
The doubles world No62 is not in the draw this week and was only on site as an alternate, having missed the cut.
To add to his woes, the recent Houston champion went on to spend around half an hour stuck in the lift.
In a selfie taken in the elevator, Romboli raised his thumb and tagged the Madrid Open.
The luckless star wrote: “30 minutes stuck in the elevator… if there’s an alternate now I won’t make it in time.”
Eventually maintenance crew on site arrived to prise open the doors and free Romboli.
Reigning U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff managed to squeeze in a 6-4 6-2 victory over Belinda Bencic just before the 12:30pm power outage.
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Gauff, 21, was conducting her on court interview when the power cut out, with her mic failing mid-sentence.
The American later revealed that she could not even shower following her match, and eventually had to walk back to her hotel due to the streets surrounding the Caja Magica being gridlocked.
British up-and-comer Jacob Fearnley found himself in a precarious position as play was forced to be halted, about to serve to stay in his match against Grigor Dimitrov at 4-6 4-5.
All remaining play was later cancelled for the day, with fans urged to leave the venue if able.
The indoor concourse, which had to be illuminated by phone lights, featured stalls selling food and drink – although fans could only make cash purchases due to contactless machines not working.
Another player that did manage to finish their match was teenage phenom Mirra Andreeva.
The Russian was able to get her contest with Yuliia Starodubtseva finished despite the power cut, with the umpire calling the lines for the final stages.
‘KIND OF EXCITING’
Andreeva, who turns 18 on Tuesday, told the WTA after the match: “This is my first blackout. It’s actually kind of exciting because I’ve never experienced anything like this.
“I’m super happy that they put me first so I got to finish everything on time.
“But I don’t want to spend the night here and sleep in the gym, but we’re going to see what they tell us and just go from there.”
Should the power be fully restored, Tuesday is set to be a hectic day as the tournament aims to get back on schedule.
The resumption of Fearnley’s match with Dimitrov is set to take place second on Manolo Santana court, following Diana Shnaider’s battle with world No2 Iga Swiatek.