Agassi drug revelations spark massive controversy

Tennis legend Andre Agassi's revelation in his autobiography, extracted yesterday in the Times, that he had taken crystal methamphetamine while still a player and subsequently lied to his sport's governing body the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) about it, has sparked massive controversy - no doubt to the delight of his publishers.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has demanded that the ATP explain how they came to allow the star to escape punishment for his actions. Agassi recounted in his memoir Open: An Autobiography how he had snorted the drug with his then-assistant Skip. After testing positive for the substance, Agassi wrote to the ATP telling them that he had accidentally imbibed the drink in one of Skip's 'spiked' sodas.

Wada's president John Fahey admitted yesterday that his body could take no action against the tennis player as they are governed by an eight-year statue of limitations in which to sanction an individual and also because Agassi is now retired. However Fahey said Wada "expected the ATP, which administered its own anti-doping programme at that time, to shed light on this allegation."

There is concern in the wider world of sport that the ATP does not police tennis as well as other bodies do their sports. In August Frenchman Richard Gasquet won an appeal after having tested positive for cocaine use. The player claimed that he had ingested the drug after kissing a girl called 'Pamela' in a bar. The International Tennis Federation is itself appealing the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Interviewed by the Times, the ATP's former chief executive Mark Miles, who was in the role in 1997 when the Agassi case occurred, denied that there had been a cover-up: "There has never been a time when an ATP executive decided the outcome of any doping case. Each one of those that took place in my period of office at the ATP was heard by a properly appointed independent panel."

Meanwhile Agassi has responded to the uproar that his admission has occasioned. "I wore my heart on my sleeve and my emotions were always written on my face," he wrote on an American magazine's website. "I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story. The book lives up to the title. It’s my life, for better or worse. Get ready, buckle up, and keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times." ·