Agassi admits drug use, lying to tennis authorities (3rd Roundup)

Oct 28, 2009, 15:48 GMT

   London - Eight-time Grand Slam winner Andre Agassi has admitted he failed a drugs test but escaped a ban by lying to tennis authorities.

   The American has revealed in his new autobiography he took crystal methamphetamine but persuaded the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) into believing he had taken it by accident.

   The admission by the 1992 Wimbledon champion comes in the autobiography Open that is being serialised exclusively by Britain's Times newspaper.

   Agassi, now 39, said he received a call from a doctor working for the ATP in the autumn of 1997 to inform him that he had failed a drug test for the highly addictive crystal methamphetamine.

   'My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I've achieved, whatever I've worked for, might soon mean nothing,' Agassi wrote.

   'Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. It's filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth.'

   Agassi told the ATP he had accidentally taken a drink spiked by his former assistant, Slim.

   'I say Slim, whom I've since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth - which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter.

   'I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely.

   'I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it.'

   Agassi said the ATP reviewed his case and while he faced a minimum three-month ban for use of a recreational drug, decided to believe his account and the case was withdrawn.

   The ATP refused to comment on the case dating back a dozen years.

   'It has always been ATP policy not to comment on anti-doping test results unless and until an anti-doping violation has occurred,' said a spokesman.

   'Under the tennis anti-doping program it is, and has always been, an independent panel that makes a decision on whether a doping violation has been found.

   'The ATP has always followed this rule and no executive at the ATP has therefore had the authority or ability to decide the outcome of an anti-doping matter.'

   The Times said the incident came when Agassi's form was falling and he was having doubts about his impending marriage to the actress, Brooke Shields.

   'Had the positive drugs test become public, the repercussions for Agassi could have been catastrophic. It remains to be seen whether repercussions will follow his confession,' it said.

   The London-based International Tennis Federation, which runs the four Grand Slams, was quick to weigh in on the revelations and defend current anti-doping controls in place.

   'The ITF is surprised and disappointed by the remarks made by Andre Agassi in his biography admitting substance abuse in 1997,' read a statement from president Francesco Ricci Bitti.

   'Such comments in no way reflect the fact that the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme is currently regarded as one of the most rigorous and comprehensive anti-doping programmes in sport.

   'The events in question occurred before the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded in 1999 and during the formative years of anti-doping in tennis when the programme was managed by individual governing bodies.

   'The ITF, Grand Slams, ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are now unified in their efforts to keep tennis free of drug use, and this should not be overshadowed by an incident that took place over 12 years ago.

   'The statements by Mr. Agassi do, however, provide confirmation that a tough Anti-Doping Programme is needed.'