In a bombshell revelation detailed in his new memoir, Open, Andre Agassi admits he used crystal meth in 1997, tested positive for the drug and lied to the ATP about the circumstances surrounding his crystal meth use.
In 1997, Agassi's ranking plummeted to No. 141 and he began a descent into drug use.
"I can't speak to addiction, but a lot of people would say that if you're using anything as an escape, you have a problem," Agassi told People Magazine.
Excerpts from Agassi's memoir are published in this week's People and Sports Illustrated.
Asked if he was concerned his admission of past drug use might alienate some fans, Agassi told People "I was worried for a moment, but not for long. ... 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."
The 39-year-old Agassi recounts how his personal and professional crisis converged in 1997 — he was questioning his marriage to actress Brooke Shields and his commitment to tennis — prompting him to try the drug. Agassi writes that his personal assistant, identified as "Slim" in the book, turned him on to the drug.
"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 in an excerpt published by The Times. "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 writes the "gack attack" temporarily turned him into Mr. Clean.
"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 writes.
Sometime after he first tried cyrstal meth, Agassi writes he was talking through New York City's LaGuardia airport when he received a call from a doctor working for the ATP who informed him he has failed a drug test. Agassi, according to the excerpt published by The Times, realized the ramifications of the positive test and lied to the ATP about how the drug entered his system.
"There is doom in his voice, as if he’s going to tell me I’m dying," Agassi writes, according to The Times excerpt. "And that’s exactly what he tells me. He reminds me that tennis has three classes of drug violation. Performance-enhancing drugs ... would constitute a Class 1, he says, which would carry a suspension of two years. However, he adds, crystal meth would seem to be a clear case of Class 2. Recreational drugs. That would mean a three-month suspension.
"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."
According to Agassi, the ATP reviewed his case and essentially covered up the incident by throwing it out.
