Inclement weather typically doesn’t impact tennis tournaments played indoors … unless it’s the Open Occitanie in Montepellier. The second-round match between No. 3 seed Flavio Cobolli and Jesper de Jong was twice interrupted Thuesday as heavy rains in the area resulted in an in-arena blackout.
As the players returned from a change of ends with the Dutchman leading 5-2 in the third set, some of the lights in the Sud de France Arena shut off.
While chair umpire Aurélie Tourte radioed off-court for assistance, the players idled about at the back of their respective baselines for several minutes before ATP supervisor Cedric Mourier arrived to furter assess the situation. But “just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse,” as world feed commentator Adam Fielder lamented, the rest of the arena’s lights shut off, leaving players, officials and spectators completely in darkness.
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“Unless he’s an electrician, I don’t really know what help he’s going to be,” Fielder quipped as longtime French official Mourier eventually arrived on court.
