Tennis Interrupted: Azarenka’s Patience Tested by Miami Open Power Outage
In a bizarre turn of events at the Miami Open, Victoria Azarenka’s quarterfinal clash with Yulia Putintseva was halted for nearly an hour due to a power outage. The incident, which occurred just three games into the match, left Azarenka grappling with frustration and uncertainty.
“It’s definitely a frustration,” Azarenka said after the match. “I’m not sure it’s my years of experience (on tour) rather than being a parent that helped me with that.”
With Putintseva leading 2-1, 30-0, the lights and advertising boards lining the Stadium court suddenly went dark. More importantly, Hawkeye Live, tennis’ automated line calling system, went down too. Without linespeople at the Miami Open, play could not continue.
“In that moment where you’re playing a match, you’re like, Okay, you need to stop. How long you need to stop for? I have no idea. It’s (definitely) not an easy thing to handle,” Azarenka said.
The outage presented a unique challenge for both players. “It’s quite challenging… Do you wait, do you warm up, do you sit on the court? No one knows what’s happening,” Azarenka said. “I think that was probably the most confusing part… It was just a very uncertain situation.”
After the power was restored 52 minutes later, Azarenka was able to regroup and take the opening set in a tiebreak. However, Putintseva fought back to win the second set 6-1. Azarenka ultimately prevailed in the third set, sealing the victory after exactly three hours.
The victory sent Azarenka back into the semifinals in Miami for the fifth time, and into her first at the WTA 1000 level since Indian Wells in 2021. She now awaits the winner of the match between No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina and No. 8 seed Maria Sakkari.
