Andy Roddick said his Australian Open preparations had been blown apart by a wild storm that struck Sydney on Wednesday.
The American's hopes of getting some quality practice matches before next week's first grand slam of the year were ruined when he was knocked out of the Sydney International by Korean qualifier Lee Hyung-taik 7-6, 7-5.
Roddick said the match, played in winds gusting up to 100 kph, should have been postponed.
"I've never played in anything like that," Roddick said.
"It was unbelievable. That was not a tennis match."
The storms were so severe that thousands of Sydney homes were blacked out after powerlines fell and trees were uprooted.
The match was played on an outside court where there was little protection from the weather. Neither player was able to control their ball toss on serve and Roddick had to smash the ball with all his might just to get it over on the net when hitting into the wind.
"It was humorous out there. I was taking full heaves at some shots that normally would have gone right out of the stadium and they actually went in (the court)," he said.
"I made four in a row which was just believable and I was laughing by the fifth one. I couldn't even stand up.
Roddick asked umpire Denis Overberg to postpone the match until the winds died down but his request was turned down.
"I said,' this really isn't tennis, I don't think it's fair to either one of us'.
"His answer to me was, 'They're playing on every other court'.
"I'm not going to beat myself up over it...but it was disappointing because I would have liked another match or two preparation going into the Aussie Open."
Roddick, 20, won two tournaments in 2002 to finish the year as the youngest American to make the top 10 since Michael Chang. Hed reached the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open for the second year running.
He was knocked out in the second round of last year's Australian Open and says he is hoping to make a bigger impact this year.
"Last year I kind of made baby steps from the year before," he said.
"This year it would be great to get in there and do well in some of the bigger tournaments."
