Andre Kirk Agassi’s yet to be released tell-all book, “Open,” contains at least one bombshell – his crystal meth use and how he lied to the ATP about it after failing a drug test back in 1997.
Due to be released on November 9, a publicist for Random House confirmed the rumors. “Those excerpts contain revelations about Andre’s use of crystal meth when he was a tennis player.” Random House describes the book like this: “From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography.”
According to an excerpt published in The Times of London, the eight-time Grand Slam champion sent a letter to the ATP tour to explain the positive test, saying he accidentally drank from a soda spiked with meth by his assistant “Slim.”
“Then I come to the central lie of the letter,” Agassi writes. “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.
But in a candid People magazine interview, Agassi reveals, “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,” Agassi said.
When the celeb mag asked Agassi if he was ever addicted to crystal meth, he didn’t label himself an addict, but he did tell People, “if you’re using anything as an escape, you have a problem.”
Agassi had already been a three-time Grand Slam champion, reached four other major finals, achieved No. 1 status and collected an Olympic gold medal before experiencing a nosedive of all nosedives in 1997, the year he reportedly starting using meth “a lot.” He had finished inside the Top 10 eight times before that forgettable ’97 campaign.
Maybe crime does pay, as the book has an initial run of half a million copies, with an estimated $5 million as an advance.
