Alex de Minaur has charged into the fourth round of the Madrid Open with a powerful performance as electricity returned to Spain.
The Australian No 1 took less than 90-minutes to defuse the big-serving Canadian Denis Shapovalov with a straight sets 6-3, 7-6 win on Court Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
Seeded sixth de Minaur and Shapovalov had been due on last on Monday night but were one of the 22 matches postponed after the Iberian peninsula was hit by a blackout.
The pair returned to the same arena to open Tuesday’s play, and de Minaur was soon flowing. He broke in the fifth game of the first set after Shapovalov double-faulted on break point, and again in the ninth, closing out the set with a love game.
The second set went to a tie-break, but de Minaur took that easily to draw level with Carlos Alcaraz with a tour-leading 24th win of the season.
“He’s got tremendous firepower from every part of the court, and I had to do my best to neutralise it, and not let him dictate as much as he could,” said de Minaur, who has won all five matches with Shapovalov.
De Minaur is now into his fifth consecutive Masters 1000 last-16 and will face Lorenzo Musetti as he seeks his third claycourt quarter-final this season.
Grigor Dimitrov also advanced. He had been 6-4 5-4 up against Jacob Fearnley when the power went out with the Briton about to serve to stay in the set.
He did so successfully when play resumed but the Bulgarian won the tie-break for a 6-4 7-6 (7-3) victory.
Americans Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe also won on a morning when there were a few teething problems following the power outage.
The 11th-seeded Paul defeated Karen Khachanov 6-3 3-6 6-2, while the 16th-seeded Tiafoe beat Alexandre Muller 6-3 6-3.
Teenager Jakub Mensic defeated Alexander Bublik 6-3 6-2 while Britain’s Cameron Norrie was upset by Canada’s Gabriel Diallo 2-6 6-4 6-4.
The blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, knocking out subway networks, phone lines, traffic lights and ATM machines.
At the Madrid Open players had to eat by candlelight and Brazilian doubles player Fernando Romboli, who is partnering Australia’s John-Patrick Smith, had to be rescued after getting stuck in a lift.
