Jacob Fearnley has not been a full-time professional player for a full year, yet on an unforgettable Monday afternoon in Madrid, he found himself in a bizarre scenario that many of the best players in the world would struggle with.
Fearnley, a qualifier at the Madrid Open, had been mounting a courageous last stand against the veteran 14th seed, Grigor Dimitrov, when the city and country came to a standstill. With Dimitrov leading 6-4, 5-4 in Manolo Santana Stadium, both players were sent off the court as it became clear that Monday’s power outage that left Spain and Portugal without electricity would force the tournament to suspend all matches for the day. For Fearnley, this meant he had over 24 hours to ponder how exactly that crucial service game would pan out: “It’s impossible not to overthink it,” he said.
