
Former tennis champion Andre Agassi admits to have used crystal meth while he was playing back in 1997 in his new autobiography titled “Open: An Autobiography” to be released on November 9.
Sport Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch broke the news on Twitter [@richarddeitsch: Book excerpt from Andre Agassi in the forthcoming SI: He admits to taking crystal meth during his career.] but the tweet was later deleted.
Paul Bogaards, director of media relations at Knopf, a division of Random House, confirmed the news: “Those excerpts contain revelations about Andre’s use of crystal meth when he was a tennis player”. The official publisher’s description of the book does not mention Agassi’s struggle with drugs.
Agassi did not win any major tournament in 1997 but he won the Olympic gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Games and the French Open and US Open in 1999. The 39 year-old is currently married to former Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf with whom he has two children.
UPDATE: Released Book Excerpt Offers More Details:
“Slim is stressed too … He says, You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell’s gack? Crystal meth,” Agassi recounts in the book. “Why do they call it gack? Because that’s the sound you make when you’re high … Make you feel like Superman, dude.
“As if they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth, I hear these words: You know what? F*** it. Yeah. Let’s get high.
“Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed.
“There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes 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.
“I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds.”
Agassi goes on in the book to tell of how he failed a drug test in 1997 and lied in a letter he wrote to the ATP stating that he mistakenly ingested the drug from a spiked soda. The ATP discharged the positive test and the incident never came to light until now.
Andre must be desperate to sell books or need some cash because he should have kept this unknown confession buried back in 1997.
Andre Agassi & Steffi Graf Pictures Below go on reading »