WADA writes to ATP over Agassi drug admission

LONDON (AP) -The World Anti-Doping Agency has asked tennis to investigate Andre Agassi's admission that he took crystal meth in 1997.

WADA director general David Howman would not elaborate on what he wrote in the letter sent to the ATP, but he told The Associated Press on Monday he hopes it "would bring a considered response."

"Our task is to protect the clean athletes and to make sure that these sorts of things don't recur," Howman said by telephone. "And if we didn't take any steps, somebody would be knocking on our door saying, 'Well, what are you doing about this?"'

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Agassi wrote in his soon-to-be-released autobiography "Open" that he ingested crystal meth and then lied to the governing body of men's tennis to avoid a suspension after failing a doping test.

Howman said the letter was specifically addressed to the ATP, but the International Tennis Federation would be made aware of it.

Although tennis and doping authorities initially expressed disappointment when Agassi admitted to using crystal meth in excerpts from the book published Wednesday, they also said it was too late for sanctions against the eight-time Grand Slam champion it because of an eight-year limitation rule.

Howman, however, has urged the ATP to look more closely into the situation and inform WADA of its findings.

He wants his group to "respond in as responsible fashion as possible by making sure we don't start preaching or teaching before we have all the relevant information. Once we've got the relevant information we can make better judgment calls."

The ATP did not immediately return a call.

Agassi, who is married to tennis great Steffi Graf, is a former top-ranked player who won all four Grand Slam titles. He has also raised tens of millions of dollars for at-risk youths in his hometown of Las Vegas and opened a preparatory academy there.

Besides admitting to using crystal meth in the book, Agassi also wrote that he swallowed a pill given to him by his father - apparently when he was a junior player - that may have been the amphetamine speed.

"These things of yesteryear, before our time, are such that we're required to investigate them but we don't have the tools with which we can manage unless there is something that comes from such an investigation," Howman said of WADA, which was founded in 1999.

Howman said he expected the ATP to proceed with caution.

"We've got to be reasonably fair and give them time," he said.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Agassi used crystal meth, book reportedly saysCruyff against long-term deals

Davydenko easily advances to 2nd round at Valencia

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) -Nikolay Davydenko of Russia broke Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla five times Monday to win 6-2, 6-1 in the opening round of the Valencia Open.

Tomas Berdych fired eight aces to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-3, 6-4 in the hard-court tournament at the City of Arts and Sciences. The Czech also saved all four breakpoints chances.

Albert Montanes defeated qualifier Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in an all-Spanish match, and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain beat Simon Greul of Germany 7-5, 6-2.

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The tournament was played on clay in the previous 14 editions.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Monaco, Greul advance at Stockholm OpenLopez aware of United rumours

Agassi says he took what he believes to be speed

LONDON - Andre Agassi says in an excerpt from his soon-to-be-released autobiography that he swallowed a pill given to him by his father — apparently when he was a junior player — that he believes could have been the illegal drug speed.

In the latest passage revealed from the book “Open,” which was published Thursday in the German newspaper Bild, the eight-time Grand Slam champion says his father gave him an unidentified little white pill and he took it.

“I swallow it and I feel good. Not much different. A bit more alert,” Agassi wrote in comments translated from German, adding his brother Phillip had warned him against taking anything from their father because it was the amphetamine speed.

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“’Next time you go to the nationals and Paps gives you pills, don’t take them,”’ Agassi quotes his brother as saying. “As Philly predicted, at the national tournament in Chicago, my father gave me a pill.”

It is unclear to which tournament Agassi is referring. But he did win the 1985 national boys 16 doubles championship title with John Falbo in Kalamazoo, Mich., about 100 miles from Chicago, when he was 15.

In excerpts published Wednesday, Agassi said he ingested crystal meth in 1997 and then lied to the governing body of men’s tennis to avoid a suspension after failing a doping test.

ALSO ON THIS STORYOpinion: Agassi’s drug revelations smack of cynical ploy
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Although tennis and doping authorities initially expressed disappointment when Agassi admitted to using crystal meth, they also said it was too late to take any sanctions against the career Grand Slam title holder for using it because of an eight-year limitation rule.

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Serena Williams pulls out of Fed Cup final

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -Serena Williams withdrew from the U.S. team that will face Italy in the Fed Cup final, deciding she needs to rest after a long season.

Williams informed U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez she won't play in the Nov. 7-8 matches, U.S. Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Vania King replaces Williams on the roster, joining surprise U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin, Liezel Huber and Alexa Glatch. Fernandez had announced this week Williams would play Fed Cup for the first time since 2007.

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Willliams will play sister Venus Williams in Sunday's final of the WTA championships in Doha, Qatar. She has been playing with her left thigh strapped in the season-ending tournament.

"I think I'm just going to be wiped out by the end of this," she said after winning her semifinal Saturday when injured Caroline Wozniacki quit in the second set. "I'm literally just giving everything I have."

Williams leads active women with 11 Grand Slam singles titles and is unbeaten in Fed Cup singles play.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ancelotti delighted with ColeSerena, Safina will battle for No. 1 in Dubai

Safina hopes to play ahead of Australian Open

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -Two days after tearfully pulling out of the WTA Championships with a serious back injury she thought could keep her out of the Australian Open, Dinara Safina has entered the earlier Brisbane International.

"After playing on the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2008, I am pleased to return to Queensland to play in Brisbane," Safina said Friday in a statement issued by Brisbane International organizers.

"The Brisbane International will be the perfect tournament to get some tough match practice in the lead-up to the Australian Open. I am looking forward to the challenge and I cannot wait to get there."

Safina said Wednesday in Doha that she faced six weeks of rest before stepping back on the court, and a potentially long rehabilitation process that could see her miss the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 18. The Brisbane International runs from Jan. 3-10.

Safina lasted only 13 minutes in her first round-robin match of the season-ending championships on Wednesday before retiring while serving at 1-1 against Jelena Jankovic. Her withdrawal meant she lost the year-end No. 1 ranking to Serena Williams.

"I did everything possible to play here," Safina said then. "As I was chasing this No. 1 (ranking), I was fighting with my body."

After stopping play in the third game, Safina, in tears, walked over to her chair and covered her face with a towel before retiring. She said one of the discs in her lower back was "starting to fracture," and that she has been dealing with the pain for three months.

Safina said she faced six weeks of rest before stepping back on the court, and a potentially long rehabilitation process that could see her miss the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 18. The Brisbane International runs from Jan. 3-10.

"When I speak with the doctors, it doesn't sound so good," Safina said in Doha of the Australian Open, where she lost this year's final to Williams. "It is possible I may have to skip it."

On Friday, Brisbane International tournament director Steve Ayles said he was happy to confirm Safina's appearance despite her recent injury.

"She joins Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Ana Ivanovic in a very strong and competitive women's field," Ayles said. "We have been in negotiations with Safina for some time and it is just a shame that when we are ready to announce her attendance she suffers an injury in Doha.

"Safina is a fighter and I know she is really looking forward to returning to Queensland. I have no doubt she will be here in January."

Kone wants first-team footballHenin confirms tour return in Brisbane, Australia

Agassi’s drug revelations smack of cynical ploy

PARIS - Imagined conversation between literary agent and retired tennis megastar with a dirty secret: “You want to get richer with me?”

“How?”

“With ker-plunk.”

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“What the hell’s ker-plunk?”

“A tell-all autobiography.”

“Why do they call it ker-plunk?”

“Because that’s the sound the dollars make as they drop into our bank accounts.”

Should we be surprised that Andre Agassi now tells us, 12 years after the fact, that he snorted crystal meth when his life and tennis were at a low? Absolutely not. You could fill a rehab center with all the top athletes who succumbed over the years to cocaine, weed, alcohol, binge-eating and the rest.

But we are entitled to feel manipulated by the manner in which Agassi’s sordid confessions are being dished out — in tantalizing — even addictive? — little doses that will likely have readers, mugs that they are, heading for stores and hungry for more.

Was that taster good? Now buy the whole dose.

In the same way that Agassi’s assistant Slim cut and readied “a small pile of powder on the coffee table,” choice morsels from “Open: An Autobiography” — on sale Nov. 9, folks! — have been sliced, diced and pushed on us.

“Andre Agassi reveals his drugs shame,” “sensational confession,” the Times of London trumpeted, among four publications that paid for rights to headline-grabbing excerpts.

“Slim is stressed,” read the juiciest part of the Times’ extract. “He says, ’You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell’s gack? Crystal meth. Why do they call it gack? Because that’s the sound you make when you’re high ... Make you feel like Superman, dude.”’

Get that, kids?

Agassi took crystal meth and still won five more Grand Slams, reclaimed the No. 1 ranking, wed Steffi Graf and tugged heartstrings with his tearful 2006 adieu to pro tennis at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

So either counselors have been overdoing their warnings that crank, ice — call it what you will — is one of the most addictive and ruinous drugs out there. Or, more likely, it’s simply easier to kick the habit when you’re rich enough to hire personal trainers to beat you back into shape and not living in misery with no future beyond your next high.

In short, was Agassi’s drug-taking really worth sharing because it offers a universal and valuable lesson about how mistakes can be corrected? Or, mindful of its potential impact on those who look up to him, should he have kept this to himself?

The Times’ excerpts don’t really allow us to answer those questions. Guess we’ll have to buy the book. Instead, the message that comes across loudest is that crystal meth seems pretty fabulous. Too bad it makes your teeth fall out.

“A tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy,” Agassi says.

Perhaps recalling this high was cathartic for Agassi, but lacing his account with a bit more soul-searching might have been more educational.

As International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge noted, “If his admission would go together with the message to young athletes that it should not be repeated, then that would be useful.”

Equally disturbing is Agassi’s revelation that he failed a drug test but escaped sanction by telling a dog-ate-my-homework lie to the ATP that he “drank accidentally” from a beverage that Slim had spiked, “unwittingly ingesting his drugs.”

Question for those who run tennis: How many other stars were let off the hook like this? If Agassi, by then a three-time Grand Slam winner, hadn’t been such a crowd-pleaser, would he have been punished?

The year Agassi snorted was also the first to see a tennis player suspended for drug use. But who had ever heard of Ignacio Truyol of Spain, ranked No. 127 and convicted for a steroid and a stimulant?

ALSO ON THIS STORYNavratilova says Agassi ‘up there with Roger Clemens’
  Vote: Thoughts on Agassi now?

Given retired players’ subsequent autobiographical confessions about how they toked and sniffed, it now seems a glaring failure that the sport didn’t clean house as vigorously as Agassi says he did on meth’s high, tearing around dusting his furniture, scouring his tub and making his beds.

Bidding among publishers competing for Agassi’s memoir reportedly topped $5 million — more in line with what a former U.S. president might expect — when Alfred A. Knopf acquired the rights in 2007.

 Slideshow 

Navratilova says Agassi вЂup there with Roger Clemens’Fabiano hints at Sevilla exit

Navratilova says Agassi вЂup there with Roger Clemens’

MIAMI - Martina Navratilova drew a parallel Thursday between Andre Agassi and Roger Clemens, saying she’s shocked the eight-time Grand Slam champion lied about drug use.

Agassi’s upcoming autobiography contains an admission he used crystal meth in 1997 and failed a drug test — a result he says was thrown out after he lied by saying he “unwittingly” took the substance.

“Shocking,” Navratilova said Thursday from Sarasota, Fla., in a phone interview. “Not as much shock that he did it as shock he lied about it and didn’t own up to it. He’s up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I’m concerned. He owned up to it (in the book), but it doesn’t help now.”

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Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, repeatedly has denied using performance-enchancing drugs. His former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, claimed in the Mitchell Report that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

According to an excerpt of Agassi’s autobiography “Open” published Wednesday in The Times of London, he blamed the positive drug test on accidentally drinking a soda spiked with meth. Agassi wrote that the ATP accepted his explanation and threw out the case.

“Andre lied and got away with it,” Navratilova said. “You can’t correct that now. Do you take away a title he wouldn’t have won if he had been suspended? He beat some people when he should have been suspended.”

Navratilova won a record 167 singles titles, including 18 in Grand Slam tournaments. She retired from singles in 1994 and played her last doubles match in 2006.

ALSO ON THIS STORYOpinion: Agassi’s drug revelations smack of cynical ploy
  Vote: Thoughts on Agassi now?

She said she found Agassi’s decision to come out with the story now peculiar.

“How is it going to play out for him? I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know why he would come out now.”

Agassi retired in 2006. His autobiography will go on sale Nov. 9.

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© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Agassi used crystal meth, book reportedly says