John McEnroe has delivered his thoughts after Roland Garros revealed they would be fining one of their players roughly half of their prize money.
This comes after Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, the Paraguayan talent who enjoyed a run to the second round after coming through qualifying, made some questionable sexist remarks about the umpire following his exit from the event.
His words were thoughtless and damaging, as he argued that a male umpire would have done a better job than Ana Carvalho, the female in charge.
John McEnroe agreed that Vallejo’s comments were foolish, but did sympathise with him as well.
John McEnroe slams Roland Garros for Adolfo Daniel Vallejo fine
He reacted live on TNT Sports by stating: “He is obviously not married first of all! But here is the thing: $65,000 to say something asinine. That seems absurd! I can see $5,000, maybe $10,000. But this guy doesn’t make the type of money which Naomi Osaka does.
“I remember when she didn’t know if she wanted to play and I said ‘it’s tough making $70 million a year, I don’t know how she does it’.
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“So in a way the better you get the less sympathy you have for some of these issues. But for this guy, it’s obviously stupid, but that is a big time fine!”
It’s a shame to see the South American former junior world number one, who enjoyed a really successful 2025 campaign, let himself down like this.
What exactly did Adolfo Daniel Vallejo say about the Roland Garros umpire?
Vallejo’s comments came after his second-round defeat at the hands of the hometown hero Moise Kouame, who enjoyed a fairytale debut at the Grand Slam level.
Naturally, he was well supported by the crowd, as a 17-year-old Frenchman who was lighting up the event.
However, Vallejo argued that the umpire therefore failed to deal with the pressure that this raucous crowd created.
He told Clay magazine: “I think this sort of match should be umpired by a man.
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“It’s very difficult for a woman to do it because the crowd is very annoying and you need to have a lot of courage to go against the crowd.
“I knew it [the crowd] was going to be like that. It didn’t harm me, it only strengthened him.”
Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo justified the fine by noting: “It is roughly half of his prize money.
”Clearly, this is something that is not acceptable for us as a tournament. Words like this should not be added in this arena.”
