In bright sunshine, Roddick and Ferrer played just two more games of their clash, which had already twice fallen victim to the weather, on Louis Armstrong Stadium when play was halted as water seeped up to the court surface following more heavy overnight rain.

After court staff and officials tried to dry up the wet patches behind the baseline, the players were called back to the court, but  Roddick told tournament referee Brian Earley that the surface was still too wet to play.

“Why are we here if there is water there?” stormed a furious Roddick.

“I’m getting really pissed off. Jesus, what are we doing here. It’s killing me. I am baffled right now.”  

Roddick, the 2003 champion, then picked up his bag and stormed off court to a chorus of jeers from the crowd.

Earley then agreed to switch the match to Court 13 as officials kept up their desperate attempts to clear a backlog caused by two days of action being washed out by torrential rain.

On Wednesday, defending champion Rafael Nadal claimed players’ safety was being put at risk by officials trying to rescue the rain-hit event.

Only 15 minutes of play was possible after all of Tuesday was lost to torrential downpours, the first such full-day wipeout since  2006.

The deluge left defending champion Nadal stuck at the fourth round stage and facing having to play four days in succession if he  was to win Sunday’s final.

The tournament was playing catch-up on Thursday as a backlog of four men’s last-16 matches and two quarter-finals as well as the women’s quarter-finals were all due to be finished.