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Martina Navratilova blasts Andre Agassi for lying to tennis tour officials in 1997 about his drug use
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova is well-known for her honesty and candor but she believes Andre Agassi’s revelation about using crystal meth while on the pro tennis tour is coming about 12 years too late.
“Shocking,” Navratilova told the Associated Press Thursday from Sarasota, Fla. “Not as much shock that he did it as shock he lied about it and didn’t own up to it. He’s up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I’m concerned. He owned up to it (in the book), but it doesn’t help now.”
Agassi, (pictured below with wife Steffi Graf - one of Navratilova’s great rivals, writes about his drug use for about a year in his forthcoming autobiography Open out next month. He writes that when he tested positive for the drug, he lied and told tour officials he had unwittingly ingested the drug in a drink he didn’t know was spiked.
They bought it, he escaped punishment and revived his career.
“Andre lied and got away with it,” Navratilova said. “You can’t correct that now. Do you take away a title he wouldn’t have won if he had been suspended? He beat some people when he should have been suspended. … How is it going to play out for him? I don’t know. I don’t know why he would come out now.”
The world’s top two tennis players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, both released statements Thursday expressing disappointment in Agassi but American Andy Roddick was supportive writing on his Twitter page: “Andre is and always will be my idol. I will judge him on how he has treated me and how he has changed the world for (the) better.”
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
DJ says:
Navratilova, as always,is talking before she thinks. Did she even bother to look up the fact that meth is not a performance enhancing drugs? That Andre won ZERO titles during this dark period in his life? That he dropped to the lowest rank of his entire career at 141? That had he been suspended it would have only been for a maximum of 3 months?
She should drop the holier than thou act. How many people has she helped? How many lives has she changed? How much of her own money has gone to charity? How much of her time does she spend helping people in need? All she does is play tennis. She retired so late that people got tired of seeing her win and not letting the younger players have their moment to shine. She is a selfish woman who was never a good ambassadress for the sport.
I bet most fans would rather cheer for an imperfect Agassi than self righteous, and clearly- ignorant Navratilova.
Prasad says:
I agree. Andre is not perfect. Not sure why he revealed it now. Guilt perhaps. Martina is a great player. But she is an arrogant, self-centered person who was a drag on the sport.