Agassi plea for drug row compassion

Published on Friday 6 November 2009 22:59

ANDRE Agassi has pleaded for compassion following the admission he took crystal meth during his tennis career.

The American confessed to using the drug in 1997, a year in which he slumped to 141st in the world rankings. He then lied to ATP officials and escaped punishment.

Agassi has given an interview to American television station CBS – due to be aired tomorrow – but in excerpts released yesterday he asked for understanding.

"I would hope with that would come some compassion that maybe this person doesn't need condemnation. Maybe this person could stand a little help," he said. "Because that was at a time in my life when I needed help. I had a problem and there might be many other athletes out there that test positive for recreational drugs that have a problem. So I would ask for some compassion."

Agassi made the revelations in his book, Open, which will be published next week. And he accepts his honesty may tarnish people's opinions of what was a glittering career. "I don't know what the ramifications are," Agassi said. "I had way more to lose by telling this story in full transparency than I had to gain. The price that that comes with is the cost that I've assumed, and I'm okay because the part that I worry and think more about is who this may help."

Meanwhile, Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse have received one-year suspensions from anti-doping officials. The Flemish Regional Tribunal said US Open semi-finalist Wickmayer had failed to declare her whereabouts on three occasions, a requirement under World Anti-Doping Agency standards, while Malisse had failed to do so twice and had also missed a test when he was unavailable for testing at an address he had provided.