"I give him a lot of credit for the mental resilience": John McEnroe praises Jannik Sinner's resilience amidst doping scandal drama

Former world number one John McEnroe has praise the ‘mental resilience’ of the Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner after his impressive performance in the US Open following a doping scandal. The 23-year-old is already regarded as one of the best players currently playing in men’s tennis in the singles category along with Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

Sinner has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. He narrowly escaped a ban after being tested positive for banned substance in two doping tests. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), in a detailed statement, announced that they accepted the player’s council response where they claimed that the incident happened because of a mistake of one member of the player’s coaching staff.

That decision from the ITIA received widespread criticism from fans on social media, including some of the current and former players who were of the opinion that every player must be treated equally. Despite all that noise, Sinner, who arrived at the US Open with all the negativity, managed to put that all behind and is now in the semifinal of the mega-event after beating Russia’s Danii Medvedev in the quarterfinal with a score of 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Former world number one McEnroe was recently quoted in a report where he praised the mental strength of the current world number one. The 65-year-old also stated that he wished the whole doping matter was resolved quicker as there was ‘nothing’ in it.

“I give him a lot of credit for the mental resilience he has shown over the last few weeks,” he said. “In the first round, he lost the first set and he was down a break. You were like: ‘What’s going on?’ Stuff’s swirling in his head. So a lot of kudos for Jannik Sinner and the way he has played. Would there be a stain or an asterisk if he were to win a second Major here? My opinion would be no. I wish this had been decided quicker, the whole episode when it came out. I sure hope there was nothing to it. It would be absolutely super depressing for our sport. He is one of our brightest young stars.”