Three-time Wimbledon runner-up Roddick is not a fan of Roland Garros’ notoriously-slow second showcourt, having lost five matches in a row on it.

But it was not being scheduled on Suzanne Lenglen which infuriated the American.

Instead, he was angry with the way court covers are allowed to stay wet at the back of the court at Roland Garros, a gripe which saw him involved in several tense exchanges with the umpire today.

He said: “They dry the whole court, but then they leave the tarps soaking wet.

“If a ball rolls through a puddle enough times, can you tell me what happens to it? Then when clay attaches to it, it doesn’t get lighter.

“It’s something that I’ve been pretty adamant about complaining about behind closed doors for a long time, you know. ”The umpire said too me, ’Well, it happens every year’. I’m going, ’Is that supposed to make me feel better?’ I didn’t understand that logic.“

There is no love lost between Roddick and Suzanne Lenglen but despite being asked repeatedly about the court, he said: “It’s a fun court as far as people viewing, and I have no issue with it.

“It’s just the way that it plays doesn’t really help me out much. That’s all. That’s fine.

“There are courts like that everywhere. You have to deal with it and you have to play through it.”

Roddick, who reached his third Wimbledon final last year after achieving a career-best run to round four at Roland Garros, saw his normally-imperious serve broken four times today by Russian qualifier Gabashvili.

The 27-year-old’s defeat will go down as one of the big shocks of this year’s tournament, although the American did struggle to reach the third round after missing the entire clay-court season this year.

Gabashvili, who was playing in his first grand slam third-round match, will now play Jurgen Melzer (22).

The Austrian completed an upset of his own against ninth seed David Ferrer, winning 6-4 6-0 7-6 (7/1).

Third seed Novak Djokovic made hard work of beating Victor Hanescu (31) 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2, while Nicolas Almagro (19) had no such difficulty ending the run of Alexandr Dolgopolov Jr, winning 6-3 6-3 6-4.

Mikhail Youzhny needed just five games to complete a 2-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 6-3 win over Viktor Troicki, their match resuming today after being postponed last night.

The 11th seed will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in round four tomorrow.