JOHN MCENROE STILL BLAMES HIS AGENT 26 YEARS LATER BECAUSE HE DIDN’T READ THE ATP RULEBOOK, HIS CAMP INCLUDED HIS “HIGH POWERED” LAWYER DAD, JOHN GOT BOOTED OUT OF AUSSIE OPEN

Written by: Staff on 14th March 2016

JOHN MCENROE STILL BLAMES HIS AGENT 26 YEARS LATER BECAUSE HE DIDN'T READ THE ATP RULEBOOK, HIS CAMP INCLUDED HIS "HIGH POWERED" LAWYER DAD, JOHN GOT BOOTED OUT OF AUSSIE OPEN

epa05207214 Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and tournament owner (R) talks with tennis legend John McEnroe (C) during the Serena Williams versus Laura Siegemund second round match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, USA, 11 March 2016. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

John McEnroe Admits He Would Have Used Meldonium Under Certain Circumstances When Legal

John McEnroe has always possessed the ability to shock the tennis world and even at the age of 57, he has not lost the knack. It was not so much his defense of Maria Sharapova for her admission that she had tested positive for the use of an outlawed substance, more the admission that he would also have used Meldonium had he known about before it went on the banned list.

McEnroe maintained it would have been acceptable to use a prescription drug as a performance-enhancer, even if it was developed for other medical benefit. Meldonium, designed to increase the blood flow for those with circulation problems, was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list on January 1 and McEnroe admitted that he would have tried the drug had it been available during his playing days.

“If a drug is legal? That is like a no-brainer. I mean, are you kidding,” McEnroe said after arriving at the BNP Paribas Open in California’s Indian Wells. “People have been looking since the beginning of time for an edge, and you’re constantly looking for these things in any way, shape or form.”

Yet McEnroe admitted the part of Sharapova’s conundrum that does leave him distinctly baffled is her claim she was unaware of the change of ruling at the beginning of the year regarding Mildronate as she believed the medication to be called.

“It would be hard to believe that no one in her camp, the 25 or 30 people that work for her, or Maria herself had no idea that this happened,” said McEnroe, who was unaware of a change in the rules when he was disqualified from the 1990 Australian Open.

When McEnroe faced Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors, he believed it was necessary to go through four steps before being defaulted: warning, point penalty, game penalty, default. Under the recently implemented change rules, it just three-step process, eliminating the game penalty. So when British umpire Gerry Armstrong awarded the match to Pernfors, McEnroe maintained ignorance of what had actually happened.

Speaking to both The Tennis Channel and the BBC, McEnroe claimed: “Nobody told me about that rule change, so it is possible that Maria did not know, though it’s extremely doubtful.”