The French Open is not very appreciative of Adolfo Daniel Vallejo’s opinions about female umpires.
After Vallejo’s tense, five-hour battle last week at Roland-Garros against French teenager Moise Kouame, a match Vallejo lost, the Paraguayan opined that female umpires are unsuited to officiate over such a heated contest.
“This sort of match needs to be umpired by a man,” Vallejo said. “It’s very difficult for a woman to do it.”
On Monday, Roland Garros Director Amelie Mauresmo told reporters that Vallejo was fined 65,000 euros, “representing roughly half of his prize money.” Later, officials issued an update stating that the fine was in dollars, not euros.
“This is clearly unacceptable,” Mauresmo said. “Once again, such remarks have no place here.”
Vallejo’s specific gripe was that the female umpire, Ana Carvalho from Brazil, failed in her duty to control the crowd.
“It has to be refereed by a man, because it’s a very demanding crowd and you need a lot of strength to go against the crowd,” he said. “The crowd was very out of line, but I understand they’re supporting their compatriot. It’s quite an intense crowd, and that’s why I was prepared; I already knew it would be like that and, to be honest, it didn’t harm me but rather strengthened him.”
Vallejo continued, adding that his opponent “took up a lot of time on many occasions, lying on the floor or stalling.”
“And it’s not normal for the crowd to be shouting for a full minute without any play. In a match where the physical aspect matters so much, if you give a player a lot of time, he’s obviously going to take advantage of it. The truth is, it’s also difficult for a referee to manage this situation.”