John McEnroe has called for tennis to take a “uniform” approach in its response to failed drug tests following the bombshell news of Jannik Sinner’s doping violation.

It was announced yesterday that Sinner, the reigning world No 1 and Australian Open champion, had twice tested positive for clostebol back in March, with one test coming during his Indian Wells campaign.

On both occasions, the Italian successfully appealed the initial suspensions, meaning that he was able to continue playing without news of the tests initially being made public.

Tuesday’s announcement came only after Sinner had been cleared of any wrongdoing and would bear “no fault” for the violations, though he was stripped of his Indian Wells ranking points and prize money.

The shock news has attracted huge controversy and debate within the tennis world and beyond, with some questioning why the world No 1 could play and keep the news private, while others could not in previous cases.

Referencing Simona Halep’s case, seven-time major winner McEnroe questioned why the cases were initially perceived differently by the ITIA, and backed calls for more consistency.

“I understand tennis is tested virtually more than any other sport,” said McEnroe, speaking during an ESPN preview of the US Open.

“This news just came out. It is certainly surprising and shocking at this moment. Especially that it happened in March and six months have gone by and this is the first anyone has heard about it.

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“I don’t know how they differentiate between one person saying he was unaware of it and someone else who says the same thing gets suspended.

“I think Halep said that and she was suspended for 18 months and Sinner said he unknowingly had this and then he’s not suspended.

“So clearly from the players’ standpoint, you want it to be sort of uniform. This is a guy at the moment ranked No 1 in the world. This is surprising news for all of us.”

The announcement of Sinner’s case came less than 24 hours after he had won his fifth title of the season at the Cincinnati Open.

And, with no suspension in place, he will be in action at the US Open, where he will be among the favourites to capture his second Grand Slam title.

In a statement yesterday, the 23-year-old said: “I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me.

!I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the ITIA’s anti-doping programme and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance.”

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