Andre Agassi: Crystal Meth User, Liar, Tennis Champ

Retired tennis champion Andre Agassi, as respected a man as there is in the world of sports, has confessed that he dabbled in crystal meth during a slump.

Agassi reveals in his book Open: An Autobiography that he took the substance in 1997 when both his tennis and marriage to Brooke Shields were failing.

Jodie Sweetin’s memoir has nothing on this.

In the book, which is being serialized by the Times of London, he describes how an assistant known as Slim suggests that they get high on “gack.”

“As if they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth, I hear these words: Yeah, you know what? F**k it. Yeah. Let’s get high,” Andre Agassi recalls.

“Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed.

“There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness."

Andre Agassi detailing his drug use is as candid as it is surprising.

"Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy.

“I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I then make the beds.”

The eight-time Grand Slam winner, who always secretly always hated or was at least ambivalent to the game - was busted in a drug test and lied to officials.

Facing a three month suspension, the superstar wrote the organization a letter explaining himself that was “filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth.”

“I say Slim, whom I’ve since fired, is a drug user, that he often spikes his sodas with meth - which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter."

"I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely. I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself this lie is the end of it.”

The ATP accepted his version of events and threw out the suspension.