If the positive was made public the consequences would have been disastrous for his career • The winner of eight Grand Slams recognizes that secretly always hated playing tennis and lived in fear of his father, a man of violent temper.
The former American tennis player Andre Agassi acknowledges having used recreational drugs and lying to the ATP on their consumption to avoid a doping ban in his book Open: an autobiography to be published on 9 November.
Former world number one tested positive for methamphetamine-glass-and then misled the members of the ATP into believing they had accidentally consumed, as reveals the British newspaper The Times, which published several excerpts.
Agassi said he began to take-crystal--whose possession is punishable by up to five years in prison in the United States in 1997, when his fitness was declining and was full of doubts by impending marriage to actress Brooke Shields.
Thus began the world of drugs in the book, Agassi has as his assistant, which she calls Slim, introduced him to the consumption of opium. "Slim was also stressed out ... I said: You want me to cheer -- gack, "I asked who was the-gack-and explained that was crystal methamphetamine. gack And calling him by the sound you make when you're up. It makes you feel like superman, man, I said" Agassi said in his autobiography.
Finally, the tennis player agreed to try it. "Slim cut a little dope on the table and sniffed, then cut more and I snorted. I went to the couch and felt I had crossed the Rubicon," he says. In any case, Las Vegas acknowledges having had "a time of repentance "and" profound sadness "but it passed quickly. "Then comes the euphoria, takes all your negative thoughts. I never felt more alive, more hopeful and with so much energy, "he says. After the rush was decided to clean your house." I felt a desperate desire to have everything clean. I began to mourn for my house, cleaning everything from top to bottom. Dusting the furniture, scrubbed the bathtub and made the beds, "he adds. The ATP was chased
One day was at La Guardia Airport (New York) when he received a call from a doctor who worked with the ATP. "There was conviction in his voice, as if I were to say that I was dying. And was exactly what he told me, "recalls.
The doctor said he had not passed a doping test and explained that in tennis there were three types of violations of the regulations. "The performance-enhancing substances are of type 1, he said, and carries a two-year suspension. However, the crystal that has consumed is a recreational drug, type 2," writes one Agassi explains that the penalty was three months of suspension.
When she found herself caught, Agassi thought his career was over. "My name, my career, everything was at stake. All I've got, for which I worked, may soon come to nothing. Days later I sat in a chair with a notebook on my lap and wrote a letter to the ATP. It was full of lies, mixed with half truths. "
The excuse to escape punishment He explained that Slim, who has already fired, is a regular user of drugs. "Slim sometimes mix drugs with soft-something that is true. And here comes the big lie of my letter. I said that by mistake had been drinking soft drinks mixed by Slim and asked them understand and signed the letter. "
After sending, Agassi felt "ashamed" and decided to change their lives. "I promised myself that this lie was the end of all this," he writes while explaining that the ATP reviewed the case and dismissed it.