PARIS — Mikhail Youzhny was having such a bad day in the third round of the French Open that he felt the need to apologize, right on court during the match.

The 27th-seeded Russian scraped “SORRI” into the clay with his right foot in the middle of his 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 loss to No. 6 David Ferrer on Saturday.

“There was a lot of people. That’s why I write `sorry.’ Because I can’t show them a nice game,” Youzhny said. “The way we played in the beginning, it was not really interesting for people.”

Youzhny is well-known for a more painful on-court meltdown. In 2008 at the Sony Ericsson Open, Youzhny whacked himself in the head with his racket three times after losing a point. The antic left him with a thick stream of blood running from his hairline down his nose.

Also Saturday, fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova advanced by beating Nina Bratchikova of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

Later Saturday, Maria Sharapova will be back on court for her third-round match, a day after winning in the second round. Defending champion Rafael Nadal and fourth-seeded Andy Murray will also be trying to reach the fourth round.

Roger Federer also advanced to the fourth round, despite being stretched to four sets for the second straight match.