SANTIAGO, Chile – A blackout affected 98% of Chile’s population, and the electrical crisis prevented the second day of the Chile Open from being completed.
The largest blackout in the country since the 8.5-magnitude earthquake in February 2010 impacted nearly 19 million people. It was caused by a failure in the transmission line in northern Chile: the capital’s metro system came to a halt, most traffic lights went out, and people were trapped in elevators.
Yet at the ATP event, held at the Club Deportivo Universidad Católica at the foot of the Andes on the outskirts of the city, it felt like a parallel world. Generators kept the event running, allowing play to continue almost entirely uninterrupted.
It wasn’t the lack of power that stopped the second day of the tournament. The Chilean government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
The curfew worked in favor of Chilean Tomás Barrios. His match was interrupted while he was trailing 6-1 against Argentina’s Federico Coria on the center court. Meanwhile, Francisco Comesaña was leading 7-6 (3), 1-2 against Brazil’s Felipe Meligeni Alves.
Bosnian Damir Džumhur was one of the few players who noticed any difference in the tournament due to the electrical crisis. The 32-year-old complained about malfunctions in the new Electronic Line Calling Live (ELC Live) system after the event switched to its own power supply.
“It was obvious the system was making mistakes — and not by small margins. The marks on the clay were clearly visible,” he said, raising his voice in a press room where the microphones and air conditioning were out of service.
Argentina’s Tomás Etcheverry’s match was only briefly paused when the serve clock — which tracks the time between points — stopped working for a moment.
The tournament’s production team acted efficiently and issued a statement later that evening.
“As a tournament, we are aware of the ongoing emergency in the country and the state of constitutional exception declared by the government, which will take effect at 10:00 p.m. today. Following instructions from the authorities, we suspended the match and evacuated the venue under strict security measures. We will soon provide updates on tomorrow’s schedule.”
As of the time of publication, power had been restored in some parts of Chile.
