According news reports, in a key passage in his book, “Open,” Andre Agassi recalls his first experience doing crystal meth. In addition to revelations about this heavy drinking, Andre admits to snorting crystal meth, with a Vegas friend called Slim. Moreover, in ’97 (when he began his infamous “comeback” late in the fall), he tested positive at a tournament and says he was informed by the ATP that he faced public exposure and suspension.
He writes that his friend Slim dumped “a small pile of powder on the coffee table [and] 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 I’ve ever had. It’s a cortisone shot to the sub cortex. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful…I’ve never felt such energy. I’m seized by an urge, a desperate longing to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom…When there’s nothing left to clean, I do laundry. All the laundry. I fold every sweater and T-shirt and still I haven’t made a dent in my energy…I could do anything right now, anything, man, anything …I could get in the car and drive to Palm Springs and tee off for 18 holes, then drive home and make lunch and go for a swim. I don’t sleep for two days. When I finally do, it’s the sleep of the dead and the innocent.”
Then Agassi wrote a letter to the ATP claiming that he had mistakenly drunk one of Slim’s sodas that had been spiked with meth.
The ATP accepted Agassi’s plea of innocence, never asking for evidence nor apparently even questioning him or Slim. MORE LATER
