Roddick in dark mood in defeat by Monfils

Sixth seed Andy Roddick made a bad-tempered exit from the French Open late on Monday after Frenchman Gael Monfils hurried to dismiss him 6-4 6-2 6-3 before darkness 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 p.m. local time on his first match point when Roddick netted a forehand.

"The point was made to me that it was clear skies so we would play till whatever and then there was cloud cover after the second set. I thought that was concerning," Roddick told a news conference.

"The referee was called out. He didn't agree, so that was that. At that point, it didn't really matter what I thought.

"He handled the conditions better than I did."