The French Open announced on Monday a major fine for sexist remarks made about a female umpire.
The Grand Slam tournament, which is entering its second week, announced a $65,000 fine for Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, a 22-year-old player from Paraguay. Vallejo fell to French teenager Moise Kouame last week. The five-set match lasted for nearly five hours.
Vallejo fell to Kouame, 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8), in a thrilling match. However, following the match, he told the tennis website Clay that he felt the match should have been umpired by a man.
The Paraguayan tennis star claimed that "this sort of match needs to be umpired by a man."
© Susan Mullane-Imagn Images.
Vallejo said that 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."
He accused his opponent of taking "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."
The French Open was not happy with the comments
The French Open fined Vallejo roughly half of his prize money. He earned $151,000 for reaching the second round.
"This is clearly unacceptable," Roland Garros director Amelie Mauresmo said. "Once again, such remarks have no place here."
The French Open continues on Monday.
