Agassi should hand back prize money and titles, says Safin

Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009 21:22

MARAT Safin has challenged Andre Agassi to give back his titles and prize money as a sign of his remorse following the recent revelations about his drug taking.

The American, who won eight grand slam titles and earned more than $30million in prize money during his distinguished career, revealed in his newly released autobiography, Open, that he failed a drugs test for crystal meth in 1997 and lied to avoid a ban.

Agassi has listed guilt and a desire to help others who may be tempted by drugs as the reasons behind his shock admission, but Safin wants the 39-year-old to prove his sincerity. "He feels guilty? So let him just give back his titles, money, his grand slams," the outspoken Russian told L'Equipe. "If he is about fair play, he should go all the way. The ATP have a bank account, he can refund the money if he wants to.

"What's done is done. He hopes to sell more books. But he is completely stupid," added former world No1 Safin, who is playing in his final tournament before retirement at the Paris Masters this week. "I'm not defending the ATP but what he said put them in a bad position. The ATP allowed him to win a lot of tournaments, to make a lot of money. They kept his secret so why be so cruel with them? There are times you need to be able to shut up."

Meanwhile, Andy Murray is hoping a decent run in Paris this week will help him hit top form in time for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month.

The prestigious end-of-season tournament at the O2 Arena has been one of the world No4's prime targets this season but a wrist injury that forced him out of action for more than six weeks looked to have put his chances of success in jeopardy. He returned to action in Valencia last week and improved throughout the week before beating Mikhail Youzhny in the final on Sunday to win his sixth title of the year.

He arrived in the French capital yesterday for the final Masters Series event of the season, where he will play James Blake in the second round today.

Regarding his unscheduled break, Murray said: "That wasn't the plan. I wanted to play some matches to get ready for Paris and London and try and finish the year as well as possible.

"But with each match back you gain a little bit of confidence and once you get to the latter stages of the tournament you start to believe you've got a chance of winning.

"I want to try and play as many matches as possible (in Paris) so I'm match tight going into London. Last week was a great start and I'll try to play a few more here."

The 22-year-old picked up the left wrist injury before the US Open in September and aggravated it in Great Britain's Davis Cup defeat against Poland, where he played three matches in three days. But, after missing tournaments in Japan and China, Murray is confident the problem is now behind him.

"I practised for about a week before Valencia and I didn't have any problems then I played five matches there, which was good, and it's not been too bad in any of the matches that I've played," he said. "I've been icing it and seeing the physio every day and it's getting a lot better."

Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco closed in on spots at the World Tour Finals in contrasting fashion at the Paris Masters yesterday.

Davydenko wasted little time in trouncing Benjamin Becker 6-2, 6-1, but a tense Verdasco recovered against Andreas Seppi to win 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-4.

World No9 Tsonga, who retired from his first-round match against Russia's Mikhail Youzhny in Valencia last week because of a wrist injury, looked as fit as ever, outclassing Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-1, 7-5.

World No1 Roger Federer and No2 Rafael Nadal play today, against Frenchman Julien Benneteau and Spaniard Nicolas Almagro respectively.