PARIS — If love means never having to say you’re sorry, what about 6-love?
Depends which side of the French Open scoreboard you’re on, apparently.
Maria Sharapova feels not a shred of remorse about the way she has been finishing off opponents quickly — a total of five games lost through three matches at Roland Garros this year, including a 6-0, 6-0 win in the first round.
The 27th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, meanwhile, was on the wrong end of a shutout set yesterday and decided he needed to apologize right then and there to the ticket-buyers in the seats at Court Suzanne Langlen.
Finally having won one game after losing the first eight against No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain, Youzhny used the toe of his right sneaker to carve a mea culpa in the red clay near the baseline.
He etched out “S-O-R-R-i!” — stamping the dot atop the lowercase last letter for emphasis before heading to the sideline for a changeover.
“People in the stands may not have noticed, but I think I had to do this,” Youzhny said after his 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 loss.
“There was a lot of people. That’s why I write ‘sorry’ — because I can’t show them a nice game,” he said.
“The way we played in the beginning, it was not really interesting for people.”
Ferrer, who said he didn’t see Youzhny’s lettering, was part of Spain’s 5-0 showing yesterday, led by Rafael Nadal, who continued his bid for a record seventh French Open title by overpowering Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.
The second-seeded Sharapova’s matches haven’t contained a shred of intrigue so far. Not surprisingly, that’s absolutely OK with her.
After a 6-2, 6-1 victory over No. 28 Peng Shuai put her in the fourth round, Sharapova was asked whether any part of her feels bad for someone paying a lot of money to watch an hour or so of tennis.
“The last thing that’s on my mind when I’m going out on court is thinking about who paid for a ticket and how long they’re going to watch my match for,” said Sharapova, who is trying to complete a career Grand Slam by winning her first French Open championship.
“I mean, I’m not sure if that’s selfish or not, but my job is to go out on the court and to try to win.
“Whether it’s 6-0, 6-0, whether it’s a tough three-set match, you’re trying to do what you have to do.”