Lights out for top dogs in Madrid as Djokovic eyes Roland Garros

MADRID and most of Spain experi-enced an unprecedented power failure for an entire day, causing a backlog in the order of play at the Madrid Masters.

- DEBORAH CURTIS-SETCHELL

And it was equally “lights out” for a handful of top seeds, namely Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz, who all expected to reach the quarters of this event and were instead eliminated by electrifying younger talent.

Zverev was beaten convincingly for the fourth time in their head-to-heads by Argentinian No 1 Francis Cerun-dolo, who topped this big scalp, with a comeback quarter-final victory over Miami champion and rising star Jacob Mensik to notch up his tour leading 24th win of the season 3-6 7-6(5) 6-2.

Cerundolo saved a break and a match point at 5-5 in the second set, and rode momentum and the tidal wave of Spanish support to gain his second semi-final at this level.

“I was tired, I ran a lot today. I was never in control, I was really dig-ging and fighting...” he said, which was a testament to teenager Mensik’s extraordinary talent.

The Czech was aiming to pass Tomas Machac as national No 1, but will have to mount another attack in Rome.