Andy Murray faces the prospect of having to play four matches in five days if he is to achieve his dream of winning a Grand Slam title at the US Open after a downpour lashed New York yesterday.
The entire day's played was washed out after monsoon-like storms rained down on Flushing Meadows.
Organisers were so sure there would be no chance of conditions improving that they cancelled play at lunchtime, leaving the bottom half of the men's draw, including Murray and defending champion Rafael Nadal, at a huge disadvantage.
All other sections of the draw are already at the quarter-final stage, and six last-eight matches will be played today alongside the remaining fourth-round clashes, which will kick off a bumper schedule.
Murray's match against American hope Donald Young, which was due to be on Arthur Ashe Stadium, was moved to the Grandstand court at 4pm today, with Nadal's battle against Gilles Muller taking centre stage.
Home favourite Andy Roddick will have a rare trip to Louis Armstrong Stadium for his clash with fifth-seed David Ferrer, while top seeds Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki are also in action in the day session.
The night session on Arthur Ashe will begin with Serena Williams' quarter-final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before the eagerly-awaited rematch between Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The powerful Frenchman came from two sets down to beat Federer at Wimbledon, the first player to achieve the feat at a Grand Slam, and also defeated the world No.3 at the Masters 1000 event in Montreal last month.
Murray, meanwhile, was yesterday named in Great Britain's Davis Cup team to face Hungary in Glasgow later this month in the Europe/ Africa Zone Group II promotion play-off.
The Scot returned to the side after an absence of nearly two years for the victory over Luxembourg in July, which was also held at the Braehead Arena. It proved an emotional homecoming for Murray just a week after he had to lost to Nadal in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
Captain Leon Smith has named a third singles player in Glasgow's Jamie Baker as back-up, but he is confident Murray's hectic schedule in New York will not prevent him playing in the tie.
The Scot said: "If he's fit and well, he'll play. If he picks up an injury or something then Jamie will be ready, but fingers crossed Andy will be fine. He can turn up whenever he wants.
"It makes a huge difference to us having Andy in the team and the fact he's so keen to play shows how much he enjoyed the match last time."