Adolfo Daniel Vallejo is facing a fine after he said his French Open match, a loss to a home favorite teenager, should not have been umpired by a woman.
Paraguay’s Vallejo was facing France’s Moise Kouame in the second round Thursday in what turned out to be one of the best matches of the tournament. 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 4 hours, 56 minutes.
Vallejo, 22, was unhappy with the time Kouame was allowed to take between points and argued that Ana Carvalho, an experienced official, was not strong enough to control the crowd.
“This sort of match needs to be umpired by a man. It’s very difficult for a woman to do it,” Vallejo told Clay magazine. “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.”
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,” Vallejo said. “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.”
The French Tennis Federation and Roland Garros organizers released a statement Friday calling Vallejo’s 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 organizers said. “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.”
Vallejo posted on social media Friday to say his words had been taken out of context.
“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,” Vallejo wrote on X in Spanish. “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.”
Vallejo led 5-2 in the deciding set but was unable to close out the victory.
Kouame would use gestures and roars to pump up the crowd and credited the support for helping him pull out the win.
“It’s something I’ve always dreamed to do, get the crowd going and making a bit of a show on court,” Kouame said. “Of course, doing this on every point is, I think, too much, so I’m really trying to understand when is the right moment to feel the most energy the crowd is giving me.
“The public gave me a lot of energy to keep going physically and mentally. So probably without them, it would maybe be another story.”
Kouame’s win made him the youngest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal was also 17 at 2003 Wimbledon.
ESPN’s D’Arcy Maine, PA and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
