Paraguayan tennis player Adolfo Daniel Vallejo will be fined after he said women lack the courage to umpire matches with noisy crowds, following his five-hour loss to a French teenage opponent, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) said on Friday.
Vallejo blamed Brazilian umpire Ana Carvalho for failing to control the home crowd during his second-round defeat to France’s Moise Kouame, who won 6-3 7-5 3-6 2-6 7-6 (10-8) on the packed Court Suzanne Lenglen.
“I think these kinds of matches should be umpired by men,” Vallejo told Clay magazine.
“It’s very difficult for women to do that because the crowd is very annoying. You need to have a lot of courage to stand up to the crowd.”
Vallejo added that Kouame “took a lot of time in many situations, lying on the court or slowing down the match”.
“And the crowd shouting for a minute without any point being played is not normal. In a match where the physical factor is very important, if you give a player a lot of time, clearly he will take advantage of that. The truth is, it is also difficult for the umpire to manage this situation.”
The 17-year-old Kouame was loudly cheered by the home fans in the dramatic match lasting 4 hours 56 minutes, but Vallejo insisted the atmosphere only helped his opponent.
“I knew it would be like that. It didn’t hurt me, it only gave him more strength,” he said, adding that a male umpire would “definitely” have made a difference against the “disrespectful” crowd.
The FFT swiftly condemned the comments as “unacceptable” and announced a fine.
“The competence of an umpire is not determined by their gender, but by their professionalism and ability to officiate at the highest level,” the FFT said in a statement.
“The outcome of a sporting event, whether positive or negative, can never justify or excuse such remarks. The tournament organisers will impose a severe penalty on Adolfo Vallejo in the form of a fine.
“The Roland Garros tournament strongly condemns all sexist remarks, regardless of who makes them, and sends its support to the umpire of the match and, more broadly, to all match officials of the tournament.”
Vallejo attempted damage control on social media, claiming his comments were taken out of context.
“I never spoke about women in general, I only specifically referred to the umpire who was unable to manage the crowd at any point in the match,” he posted on X.
“That said, I also did not say that I lost because of her. I congratulated my opponent and it is natural for the crowd to support the home player.”
