Sixth seed Andy Roddick made a bad-tempered exit from the French Open on Monday after Frenchman Gael Monfils hurried to dismiss him 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 before dark set in.
Roddick, in the fourth round of the claycourt Grand Slam for the first time, complained to the umpire late in the second set that the light was too bad but his pleas to stop went unheeded and Monfils booked a quarter-final meeting with Roger Federer.
"I'm having trouble seeing the ball," he told the umpire. "When we started what did the sky look like? Now look up to the sky and tell me what's changed."
The American former world number one gifted Monfils the first set with a service return into the net and lost the second after squandering three break points in the eighth game.
After querying the light situation again, Roddick slammed his racket down in anger during the changeover at 3-2 in the third, drawing boos from the partisan crowd.
He seemed resigned to his fate for the rest of the set and the Frenchman, sealed victory at 9.37 pm local time on his first match point when Roddick netted a forehand.
"It is fantastic, it's a great moment," said Monfils, who lost to Federer in last year's semi-finals.
"With such a crowd behind me, I hope to shine even more."
