Australian Open officials have been urged to “strictly police” the medical timeouts at the tournament following Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner’s lengthy breaks.

Djokovic appeared to be in discomfort early during his quarter-final match against Carlos Alcaraz and opted to take a medical timeout after losing his serve to go down 5-4 in the opening set.

He left the court to receive treatment and returned with a heavily strapped left thigh and he went on to lose the first set to the Spaniard.

But the tennis great bounced back to win the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, leading to more questions about putting opponents off with medical timeouts.

Djokovic’s MTO came just a day after Sinner took an even longer timeout to receive treatment during his match against Holger Rune.

Both the physio and doctor were out on court for Sinner midway during the third set and the Italian then went to the dressing room for further treatment.

The world No 1’s MTO lasted 11 minutes and he went on to win the fourth-round match in four sets.

Former Australian Open tournament director McNamee feels organisers should keep to the rules when it comes to timeouts.

“I’m not a big fan of it, I’ve got to say,” he told The Age when asked about the medical timeouts. “Unless there’s a modesty issue, I think it should happen on court.

“And you’ve got three minutes, and that’s it.

“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.”

During ESPN’s coverage of the Djokovic-Alcaraz match, the legendary John McEnroe said it was standard practice for the 24-time Grand Slam winner to appear injured during matches, stating: “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this routine. Don’t be fooled.”

And McEnroe is not the only one who has suggested Djokovic uses MTOs to his advantage, but McNamee feels Sinner’s break was a lot worse.

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The Italian also shook uncontrollably at one stage during his match and stated afterwards that he was not injured and received treatment for an unspecific “health issue”, but he and Djokovic are expected to be fit and healthy for the semi-finals.

Djokovic, a 10-time Australian Open winner, will face Alexander Zverev for a place in the final while Sinner takes on Ben Shelton.