“Right now there is a lack of trust generally from the tennis players, both male and female, toward WADA and ITIA and the whole process,” Djokovic said at the Qatar Open.

The 24-time major winner said that he had a chat with many players in the locker room, and they are not happy with the handling of the case and have labelled it an unfair decision based on favouritism towards Sinner.

“It’s not a good image for our sport, that’s for sure,” Djokovic, the long-time No. 1 in men’s tennis, said. “There’s a majority of the players that I’ve talked to in the locker room, not just in the last few days, but also last few months, that are not happy with the way this whole process (for Sinner) has been handled.

“A majority of the players don’t feel that it’s fair. A majority of the players feel like there is favouritism happening. It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers and whatnot.”

Djokovic hopes that government bodies start taking the initiative and coming together on tours to find a better and more effective way to deal with such cases.

“Right now it’s a ripe time for us to really address the system, because the system and the structure obviously doesn’t work, it’s obvious,” Djokovic said. “So, I hope that in the … near future that the governing bodies are going to come together of our tours and the tennis ecosystem and try to find a more effective way to to deal with these processes.”

Sinner’s agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who had appealed when the Italian was cleared without punishment last year, recognised his explanation that tainted products used by his masseur had been behind the positive test.

“Sinner got suspended for three months because of the mistakes and the negligence of his team members that are working on the (ATP) Tour, so that’s also something that I personally, and a lot of players, find a bit strange,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic points out inconsistencies between the cases

Djokovic pointed out that the ITIA seemed to follow very different processes in doping cases involving Romanian Simona Halep and Briton Tara Moore.

“There are so many inconsistencies between the cases,” he said.

“We have seen on social media Simona Halep and Tara Moore and some other players that are maybe less known that have been struggling to resolve their cases for years, or have gotten the ban for years. We have to bear in mind that Sinner and Swiatek at the time were number ones in the world when we had those announcements happening,” he added.