Coco Gauff was centre stage of the power outage in Spain after her interview was cut off at the Madrid Open.
Gauff made the worst possible start in Madrid, losing the first set of her opening match against Dayana Yastremska without winning a game.
However, she has since been able to turn things around and is now into the quarter-finals after beating Belinda Bencic.
This match was just concluded before a national power outage in Spain, that disrupted the rest of the days play at the Madrid Open.
Coco Gauff glad that her request got rejected at the Madrid Open
Gauff beat Bencic, 6-4 6-2, in the first match on the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium on day eight of the 2025 Madrid Open.
After the match, Gauff spoke in the traditional on-court interview, but that was cut off after the national power outage in Spain began.
When speaking in the mixed zone after the match, Gauff admitted that she was unaware of what was going on until she left the court.
“Oh it’s so weird, obviously my interview with the thing cut off, but I thought it was just my mic on the stadium, it happened to me at Indian Wells and I was like okay,” said Gauff. “I walked in the hallway, he’s like take the stairs, the security, but he didn’t tell me why and I was like okay.
“It was pitch black and then I got the jist that the power went out, I just thought it was like a here thing and then I realized it was the whole country, so that’s insane.”
The world number four went onto reveal that she originally did not want to play on the first match of the day, and requested to be on second instead.
However, after what happened with the power outage cancelling the rest of the days play, Gauff admitted that she was glad that her request was ignored.
“At first yesterday I was trying to request to be second on instead of first, but I’m glad that that request didn’t go through,” added Gauff. “So shout out to the WTA supervisors for making the right decision for me.”
Coco Gauff explains how players were at the Madrid Open after the power outage
While the power outage has affected many people in Spain in a negative way, Gauff explained that there has actually been a positive for the players.
The American revealed that she had been talking with players like Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys, something that she would be less likely to be do when matches were going on.
“Yeah I was literally thinking the same thing, like I was talking,” said Gauff. “Like I feel usually when a players, you look at the schedule, someone’s about to go on court you’re not going to strike a conversation with them.
“Yeah, I was talking to Frances, I was talking to Mirra [Andreeva] too, Diana [Shnaider], Maddie, we were all talking. And yeah, I think it’s great, because most of the time we’re trying to prepare for our matches, so everyone is zoned in and we all understand that.
“I think this is the type of situation, it’s light-hearted, nobody knows when they’re going to go on and I’m just happy that we’re done with our matches.”
Gauff will now have an unexpected extra days rest, as she now plays Mirra Andreeva in their Madrid Open quarter-final on Wednesday April 30.
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