(ChattahBox) — Tennis legend Andre Agassi serves up a bombshell in his new memoir, The book, “Open: An Autobiography,” which will be excerpted in People and Sports Illustrated this week. The book of his colorful life is interesting enough detailing his hair loss, his troubled marriage to Brooke Shields and the love he eventually found with his current wife, Steffi Graf. But Agassi’s upcoming autobiography apparently contains an admission that he used the recreational drug crystal meth, which is very disappointing to hear.
The New York Daily News says Agassi specifically used crystal meth a stimulant in 1997, failed a drug test and boldly lied in a letter to tennis officials saying it happened after sipping one of his assistants “spiked sodas”, in order to successfully dodge a competition ban. 1997 was a low point in Agassi’s career, when a wrist injury sidelined him for much of the season and his world ranking slipped to 141. Later on, Agassi writes, he received a call from ATP doctors telling him he’d tested positive for meth.
“My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I’ve achieved, whatever I’ve worked for, might soon mean nothing. 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.
“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.”
Since then, a publicist for Random House confirmed the drug use. “Those excerpts contain revelations about Andre’s use of crystal meth when he was a tennis player,” said Paul Bogaards, director of media relations at Knopf, a division of Random House. in the book. Agassi was “worried for a moment, but not for long” about telling his fans about his use of crystal meth. “I wore my heart on my sleeve and my emotions were always written on my face. I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story.”
It’s not clear from what I have read whether Agassi tried to use the powerful stimulant to boost his energy to play better tennis or whether this was strictly a recreational endeavor. The book itself will be out November 9. Agassi retired in 2006 to his wife Steffi Graf, and two kids, after winning eight grand slam titles, and established a school for disadvantaged kids in Las Vegas. I can’t help recalling that advertising campaign for Canon that had Andre Agassi declare that ‘image is everything’?
The New York Daily News says Agassi specifically used crystal meth a stimulant in 1997, failed a drug test and boldly lied in a letter to tennis officials saying it happened after sipping one of his assistants “spiked sodas”, in order to successfully dodge a competition ban. 1997 was a low point in Agassi’s career, when a wrist injury sidelined him for much of the season and his world ranking slipped to 141. Later on, Agassi writes, he received a call from ATP doctors telling him he’d tested positive for meth.
“My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I’ve achieved, whatever I’ve worked for, might soon mean nothing. 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.
“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.”
Since then, a publicist for Random House confirmed the drug use. “Those excerpts contain revelations about Andre’s use of crystal meth when he was a tennis player,” said Paul Bogaards, director of media relations at Knopf, a division of Random House. in the book. Agassi was “worried for a moment, but not for long” about telling his fans about his use of crystal meth. “I wore my heart on my sleeve and my emotions were always written on my face. I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story.”
It’s not clear from what I have read whether Agassi tried to use the powerful stimulant to boost his energy to play better tennis or whether this was strictly a recreational endeavor. The book itself will be out November 9. Agassi retired in 2006 to his wife Steffi Graf, and two kids, after winning eight grand slam titles, and established a school for disadvantaged kids in Las Vegas. I can’t help recalling that advertising campaign for Canon that had Andre Agassi declare that ‘image is everything’?
