Mirra Andreeva has spent the past two years of her life establishing herself as one of the most successful teenagers of her era, yet on a chaotic, surreal day in Madrid, the 17 year-old had to briefly work through playing conditions more familiar to her contemporaries on the junior circuit. During the final change of ends of her fourth-round match against the Ukrainian qualifier Yulia Starodubtseva, as she served for a comfortable victory, she learned of the power outage that had ravaged Spain, Portugal and many nearby countries, ultimately forcing play to be postponed in Madrid.
As matches across the tournament grounds had already come to a halt, the two players were told that they could play out the subsequent game, but there was a catch: the live electronic line‑calling system was no longer functioning and there were no line umpires to call upon. They would have to play as if they were juniors again, calling their own lines with only the umpire there to intervene. Naturally, Andreeva began to feel the pressure.
