London: The World Anti-Doping Agency has asked
tennis to investigate Andre Agassi's admission that he took
crystal meth in 1997.
WADA director general David Howman would not elaborate on
what he wrote in the letter sent to the ATP, but he told agencies he hopes it "would bring a considered
response."
"Our task is to protect the clean athletes and to make
sure that these sorts of things don't recur," Howman said by
telephone. "And if we didn't take any steps, somebody would be
knocking on our door saying, 'Well, what are you doing about
this?"'
Agassi wrote in his soon-to-be-released autobiography
"Open" that he ingested crystal meth and then lied to the
governing body of men's tennis to avoid a suspension after
failing a doping test.
Howman said the letter was specifically addressed to the
ATP, but the International Tennis Federation would be made
aware of it.
"The ATP can confirm it has received a letter from WADA,"
the tour said in a statement e-mailed to the AP yesterday.
"When it responds it will do so directly to WADA and not
through the media."
The statement continued, in part: "The ATP would also
like to reiterate its policy of not commenting on anti-doping
test results unless and until an anti-doping violation has
been found."
That was the crux of what the ATP said last week, when
excerpts from the book revealed that eight-time Grand Slam
champion Agassi admitted he used crystal meth in 1997 and said
he had wriggled his way out of a suspension after a positive
drug test that year.
Other tennis and doping authorities initially expressed
disappointment at those revelations, but they also said it was
too late for sanctions because of an eight-year limitation
rule.
Howman, however, has urged the ATP to look more closely
into the situation and inform WADA of its findings.
He wants his group to "respond in as responsible fashion
as possible by making sure we don't start preaching or
teaching before we have all the relevant information. Once
we've got the relevant information we can make better judgment
calls."
Agassi, who is married to tennis great Steffi Graf, is a
former top-ranked player who won all four Grand Slam titles.
He has also raised tens of millions of dollars for at-risk
youths in his hometown of Las Vegas and opened a preparatory
academy there.
Besides admitting to using crystal meth in the book,
Agassi also wrote that he swallowed a pill given to him by his
father - apparently when he was a junior player - that may
have been the amphetamine speed.
"These things of yesteryear, before our time, are such
that we're required to investigate them but we don't have the
tools with which we can manage unless there is something that
comes from such an investigation," Howman said of WADA, which
was founded in 1999.
Howman said he expected the ATP to proceed with caution.
"We've got to be reasonably fair and give them time, he
said.
Bureau Report