'Not Able To Shower': Gauff Highlights Brutal Madrid Reality After Power Outage

Tuesday, 29 April 2025 at 16:50

byErik Virostko

Coco Gauff, like all the players at the Madrid Open this year, experienced a very bizarre situation when they were all left without power.

There was a nationwide power outage in Spain on April 28th, and naturally, it impacted the Madrid Open. Gauff was one of the lucky players who managed to finish her match, as she was first on the court.

Gauff beat Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2, in an hour and 24 minutes, and had the match lasted only a couple of minutes more, the players would likely have to wait until the next day to finish it. Luckily for the 21-year-old American, she won the match in two sets.

Already during Gauff's on-court interview, the microphone stopped working, but initially, she thought that it was only an issue with the microphone, as something similar had happened to her in the past.

However, she soon found out that there was a power outage, and it directly impacted her. The 2023 US Open champion wasn't able to go to her hotel because the traffic in the city was collapsing.

On top of that, there wasn't running water at La Caja Magica, which meant that Gauff had to use wet wipes to "shower" herself after the match.

"So far, the toughest thing has been not been able to shower after my match. There’s no running water so I just had to take baby wipes and wipe myself, spray some perfume and call it a day."

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"I don’t even think we’ll be able to go back to the hotel as the traffic lights are out. So it’s just crazy how much we depend on electricity. It’s really insane. It puts that in perspective and also makes me think about the humans that lived before electricity and how impressive that is."

Despite many negatives being tied to the situation, Gauff also saw the funny side of it. At the end of the day, a nationwide power outage is something she likely won't experience again in her life, so she now knows that she will remember this year's Madrid Open for the rest of her life.

"At this point this is only a situation that you can just laugh at if I was on-court because it’s probably not going to happen ever again. You can always remember the day the power went out at the Madrid Open."

Gauff also revealed that she was essentially saved by the tournament organizers. She wanted to play the second match, but her request wasn't accepted, so she had to play the first match on the court. That proved to be a blessing in disguise.

"At first, I was trying to request yesterday to be like second on instead of first, but I’m glad that request didn’t go through, so shout-out to WTA supervisors for making the right decision for me."