New Delhi: French Open Organizers have fined Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 65,000 euros, almost half of his tournament earnings, after he made sexually suggestive comments to an umpire following his second-round loss to French teenager Moise Kwame.After losing a hard-fought five-set match that lasted nearly five hours, Vallejo criticized Brazilian umpire Ana Carvalho, saying, “A match like this needs a man to umpire.” “It’s very difficult for a woman to do that,” she added.French Open director Amelie Mauresmo condemned the remarks and confirmed the hefty fine. “This is clearly unacceptable,” said Mauresmo. “Again, such remarks have no place here.” Players who make it to the second round earn €130,000, making the fine almost half of Vallejo’s prize money.Vallejo argued that his comments were related to crowd control rather than the umpire’s technical ability. He claimed that the crowd was overwhelmingly supportive of Cuomo and the official struggled to manage them. “It has to be a reference to a man, because it’s a very demanding crowd and you need a lot of strength to go against the crowd,” he said.The Paraguayan also accused Cuomo of slowing the pace of the match and said the Frenchman “took too much time on several occasions, lying on the floor or stalling.” “And it’s not normal for the crowd to be uproarious for a whole minute without any drama,” he added. Acknowledging the challenge of dealing with such conditions, Vallejo maintained that the atmosphere and officiating played a role in the match.
