French Open: Adolfo Daniel Vallejo fined $76K for sexist comment about umpire: 'Clearly unacceptable'

Adolfo Daniel Vallejo will miss out on roughly half his prize money after making a sexist comment about an umpire during his loss against Moïse Kouamé. Following that match, Vallejo said a male umpire would have had the “strength to go against the crowd,” which was supporting Kouamé, who is French.

>The French Open quickly took action, putting out a strong-worded statement decrying his comments. The French Open added that Vallejo would receive a “significant” fine for his comments.

>That fine came Monday, and it was — as promised — pretty significant. Vallejo was fined $76,000, Roland Garros director Amelie Mauresmo told reporters. That’s roughly half his prize money from the event.

>While confirming the fine, Maursemo made it clear Vallejo’s comments were “clearly unacceptable,” per ESPN.

"This is clearly unacceptable," Mauresmo said. "Once again, such remarks have no place here."

Following Vallejo’s match against Kouamé, Vallejo said umpire Ana Carvalho did not handle the crowd well. He said the match needed to be “refereed by a man,” who would have challenged the crowd, per ESPN.

"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 also accused Kouamé of stalling during the match.

>Vallejo fell behind early in the match, losing the first two sets (6-3, 7-5). He was able to claw his way back, forcing a fifth set despite his early deficit. While he pushed Kouamé, Vallejo couldn’t complete the comeback, losing the final set 7-6(8).

>Once it became clear Vallejo would be punished for his comments, he attempted to do some damage control. Vallejo hopped on social media, claiming he was talking about Carvalho, and not making a general statement about “women in general.”

"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, per ESPN. "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."

That post, however, was deleted.

>After making history with his first-round win, Kouamé used that momentum to topple Vallejo in Round 2. But the Frenchman’s surprising run ended in the next round, as Kouamé lost to Alejandro Tabilo in four sets.