{"id":62636,"date":"2025-08-11T23:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/62636\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T23:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:56:13","slug":"cincinnati-open-suspends-play-as-dark-smoke-billows-over-ground-tennis-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/62636\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Open suspends play as dark smoke billows over ground – Tennis – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play at the Cincinnati Open<\/a> was dramatically suspended Monday afternoon when a thick plume of smoke began billowing across the grounds, prompting the arrival of multiple fire trucks and an immediate power shutdown.<\/p>\n

Tournament officials quickly confirmed the situation. The Cincinnati Open\u2019s official social media account announced, \u201cDue to an on\u2011site power outage, play is currently suspended.\u201d They further advised fans that \u201cPlay will not begin before 6:30\u201d local time.<\/p>\n

The blackout, which followed a star player collapsing on the court<\/a>, came almost immediately after Taylor Fritz<\/a> concluded the opening set of his third-round match on P&G Center Court, triumphing 7\u20116(4) over Lorenzo Sonego. Meanwhile, on Court 3, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who recently rehired his dad as coach after a messy split<\/a>, held a narrow lead over Benjamin Bonzi at 7\u20116(4), 5\u20112 when play was abruptly halted.<\/p>\n

Play resumed shortly after the 75-minute interruption. It was suspended at 5:23 p.m. local time and started back up again at 6:38 p.m.<\/p>\n

Amid the chaos, journalist Ben Rothenberg offered added clarity: \u201cSeems to be smoke from a generator as power remains out around the Cincinnati Open grounds, halting play because of removal of human line judges and sole reliance on electronic line calling.”<\/p>\n

Rothenberg’s remarks suggest that the generator, critical to maintaining electronic officiating systems in this elevated, high-stakes tournament environment, malfunctioned, sparking the smoke and triggering the shutdown.<\/p>\n

The outage temporarily overshadowed what had already been an eventful day of tennis in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the afternoon, third seed Alexander Zverev rolled past Nishesh Basavareddy 6-3, 6-3 to book his spot in the third round. Home favorite Ben Shelton also advanced when Camilo Ugo Carabelli was forced to retire with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka survived a thrilling three-set battle against Emma Raducanu, prevailing 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(5) in a match that lasted over three hours. The contest featured a remarkable 13-deuce game and showcased Sabalenka\u2019s resilience, bringing her tiebreak record this season to 18 wins. She will next face Spain\u2019s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS:<\/p>\n

In a dramatic moment on Champions\u2019 Court, F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime improved to 9-0 against French opponents in 2025 after Arthur Rinderknech retired mid-match.<\/p>\n

The Canadian was leading 7-6(4), 4-2 when Rinderknech, who had collapsed earlier due to the sweltering 89-degree heat and humidity reaching 50 percent, was unable to continue. Auger-Aliassime\u2019s win added to his impressive Cincinnati record \u2014 he has now won more matches (11) here than at any other Masters 1000 event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play at the Cincinnati Open was dramatically suspended Monday afternoon when a thick plume of smoke began billowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,26217,40460,40461,27220,82,15226,593,1706],"class_list":["post-62636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cincinnati-open","tag-fire-trucks","tag-power-shutdown","tag-smoke","tag-sports","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-section"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}