POSTED: October 28th 2009
NewsUpdate
WADA wants tennis to come clean over Agassi drugs escape
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON/MONTREAL: Andre Agassi’s revelation that, while Olympic tennis champion, he took a recreational drug and lied his way out of a suspension, has sparked reaction from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
It has asked the ATP Tour to explain its handling of the case after Agassi's admission that he used methamphetamine, known also as crystal meth.
The eight-times grand slam champion broke his silence in a forthcoming autobiography. He said he had deliberately and knowing taken the drug but avoided a suspension for a positive test by claiming he ingested the drug by accident in a spiked drink.
Under current anti-doping rules, a player could face a ban of up to two years for use of the drug. WADA president John Fahey said his organisation could not act against Agassi because of its eight-year statute of limitations but that it would want to be assured that tennis had tightened up its regulations and policing policies as regards the use of drugs for both recreational and competitive purposes.
Francesco Ricci Bitti, president of the International Tennis Federation, said he had been “surprised and disappointed" by Agassi's disclosures. Excerpts from the book, Open, have been published in London in The Times newspaper
Informed by the ATP in 1997 that he had tested positive for the drug, Agassi realised he could face a three-month ban for use of a recreational substance. He said he sent a letter to the ATP tour claiming he had accidentally ingested a drink spiked with the drug and asked for leniency.
Agassi, who married tennis star Steffi Graf eight years ago and has two children, retired in 2006 – 10 years after he won Olympic Games gold in Atlanta.
Keywords · Agassi · drugs · WADA · Fahey
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