Madrid chaos after blackout? Not for Jack Draper - "So nice to have no phones"

Jack Draper commented on the blackout that hit Spain and forced the suspension of Monday’s matches at the Madrid Open. The world No. 6 faced Matteo Berrettini later in the day in a match that was delayed due to the widespread power outage across the Iberian Peninsula.

A surprise blackout affected Madrid and large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, leading to the suspension of play after just four matches had been completed—two from the women’s draw and two from the men’s.

As a result, the organisers scheduled a packed Tuesday to keep the tournament on track, adding Round of 32 matches alongside some of the Round of 16 contests on the same day.

The British No. 1 eventually played his highly anticipated match against former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini, winning after the Italian retired following a tight first set (7-6[2], ret.).

In his on-court interview, Draper addressed the unusual day in Madrid, marked by uncertainty over when the power would return. Still, he made the most of the downtime: "I was actually enjoying it. I'm a bit of a minimalist. Everyone's panicking, (but) it was so nice to have no phones and none of that other bulls**t going on in the world. I ended up reading 4 pages of a book—no, actually 10 pages. Usually I don’t read at all, so it was interesting."

Draper moves on to the Round of 16, where he will face 11th seed Tommy Paul, who defeated Karen Khachanov (No. 24) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.