PARIS (AP) — Adolfo Daniel Vallejo was fined half his French Open prize money after he said his second-round match should not have been umpired by a woman, the tournament director announced on Monday.
Vallejo lost to French teenager Moise Kouame last week after a tense five-set battle that lasted nearly five hours. He later told the tennis website Clay that "this sort of match needs to be umpired by a man.”
Following his 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8) loss, Vallejo added: “It’s very difficult for a woman to do it.”
Roland Garros director Amelie Mauresmo told reporters at the French Open that a 65,000 euros ($76,000) fine was handed down to the player, “representing roughly half of his prize money.”
“This is clearly unacceptable,” Mauresmo said. “Once again, such remarks have no place here.”
Players reaching the second round at the French Open receive 130,000 euros.
Vallejo, from Paraguay, said the umpire, Ana Carvalho from Brazil, did not control the spectators.
“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 added that Kouame “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.”
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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