Paul McNamee now believes there should be more control over the medical timeouts to prevent players from spending an extended period of time off the court.
“I’m not a big fan of it, I’ve got to say,” the former doubles world No. 1 told The Age.
“Unless there’s a modesty issue, I think it should happen on court. And you’ve got three minutes, and that’s it.”
Medical timeouts are limited to three minutes, but the doctors and physios can spend as much time as needed assessing the player before the clock starts.
But McNamee thinks this still needs to be policed more. He continued: “I don’t think it’s fair to the opponent to stop a match for 10 minutes, even five minutes. It’s meant to be three minutes and [it] should be policed strictly.”
On Monday, the doctors assessed Sinner for more than six minutes before his medical timeout began. There were similar scenes a day later when Djokovic faced Carlos Alcaraz.
The physio came to the court for a quick chat with the world No. 7 before they walked off through the tunnels. Following a consultation, Djokovic’s three-minute timeout began and he returned with his leg in heavy strapping.
The 37-year-old received some criticism, with many not convinced that his injury was genuine. John McEnroe even claimed it wasn’t the “first time that we’ve seen this routine”.
McNamee, who now coaches doubles star Hsieh Su-wei, believes Sinner deserved to cop more heat than Djokovic.
“I can’t believe people are pointing to Novak when Jannik did that the day before,” he said. “I mean that 11 and a half minutes – give me a break.”
Sinner later confirmed that he woke up feeling unwell and did not practice before his fourth-round match. He recovered in time for the quarter-final, thrashing Alex de Minaur in straight sets and admitting it was easy to bounce back from illness while being young.
Meanwhile, Djokovic has raised concern ahead of his semi-final against Alexander Zverev. The 10-time Aussie Open champion confessed that he considered retiring from his match against Alcaraz.
“The extra day with no match comes at a good time,” he later said, explaining his injury was similar to the hamstring tear he played through in 2023.
