Katie Boulter cheekily calls out Alex de Minaur’s ‘elite’ red flag behavior for going off the grid

Only a handful of matches — three singles and two doubles — were completed Monday at the Mutua Madrid Open after a massive power outage swept across Spain, forcing the tournament to suspend all play. Portugal and parts of France were also affected by the blackout.

Despite the disruption, some players still managed to stay connected — at least to social media — using humor to lighten the situation.

World No.4 Taylor Fritz quipped on X,

“Have they tried unplugging and plugging it back in?”

Meanwhile, Peyton Stearns joked two days after a cryptic post about darkness, writing:

“I didn’t mean this literally…”

Alex de Minaur, known for his low screen-time habits (as revealed during this year’s Miami Open), appeared unfazed by the technological disruption. He shared a light-hearted update:

“Don’t mind this off-the-grid thing 😂😂😂. On the third walk of the day and finally got some service to check on the rest of the world.”

However, his fiancée, Katie Boulter, couldn’t resist playfully calling him out. Replying to his post, she wrote:

“Imagine blaming a country blackout for not texting me back all day.”
Then cheekily added:
“Elite 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 behavior.”

De Minaur, who is scheduled to face Denis Shapovalov for a place in the fourth round, took the exchange in stride.

Elsewhere, Coco Gauff was caught mid-interview following her 6-4, 6-2 win over Belinda Bencic when the power outage struck. Taking it in good humor, Gauff posted:

“🤣🤣 Put this in the history books. In all seriousness, I hope everyone stays safe 🙏🏾.”

Gauff will meet seventh seed Mirra Andreeva in the WTA quarterfinals on Wednesday.