Paraguayan player Adolfo Daniel Vallejo is facing a “significant sanction” after saying his second-round match at the French Open should not have been umpired by a woman.
Vallejo was unhappy with Ana Carvalho’s handling of his five-set defeat by French teenager Moise Kouame on Thursday and, in quotes reported by Clay magazine, he said: “This sort of match needs to be umpired by a man, it’s very difficult for a woman to do it.”
Tournament organisers responded with a strong statement on Friday, saying: “The French Tennis Federation and the Roland-Garros tournament organisers have taken note of Adolfo Daniel Vallejo’s comments about the umpire… and deem these comments unacceptable.
“The competence of an umpire is not determined by their gender but by their professionalism and ability to officiate at the highest level. The outcome of a sporting event, whether positive or negative, can never justify or excuse such remarks.
“The tournament organisers will impose a significant sanction on Adolfo Vallejo in the form of a fine.
“The Roland Garros tournament strongly condemns all sexist remarks, regardless of who makes them, and offers its support to the match umpire and, more broadly, to all the tournament’s umpiring officials.”
The contest turned out to be one of the matches of the tournament so far. Kouame, 17, was roared on by his home fans on Court Suzanne Lenglen, eventually winning 6-3 7-5 3-6 2-6 7-6 (8) after four hours and 56 minutes.
Vallejo was unhappy with the time Kouame was allowed to take between points and argued Brazilian Carvalho, an experienced official, was not strong enough 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.
Players are allowed to take 25 seconds between points, with a clock counting down on the scoreboard, but umpires can use discretion as to when to start the countdown if there is a lot of noise from the crowd.
“The crowd was very out of line, but I understand they are supporting their compatriot,” added Vallejo.
“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.
“I think he 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.”
Vallejo later took to X to insist his words had been taken out of context, saying: “I never spoke about women in general, I spoke about the referee specifically, who didn’t handle the crowd at any point during the match.
“That said, I also didn’t say that I lost because of her. I congratulated the opponent and it’s normal for the crowd to cheer for the home player.”
The publication defended the story, replying: “It’s true that you didn’t say you lost because of her, and we didn’t write that either. Our text explains everything with precision and the appropriate context.”
