On November 9, Andre Agassi released his autobiography titled "Open". About a week before the release, news got out from his book that in 1997 he used crystal meth. This may come as a shock to most of the world and maybe some of the tennis world, but to me this doesn't came as much of a surprise. As much as I admire Andre Agassi, he was known as the wild child of tennis. He changed the face of tennis with a short marriage to Brooke Shields, crazy hair, and a strange style of life.
When looking back at the time when Agassi took crystal meth, it is obvious that it impacted his career and in no way was it positive. Agassi dropped to No. 141 in the world and was playing worse than he had ever played before. After ridding the addiction, Agassi made the largest one-year jump into the top 10 in the history of the ATP rankings in the 1998 season. The next season, Andre went on to win the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam. Then he finished the year with winning the U.S. Open and finished No. 1 in the world.
Though I don't agree with Agassi decision to do drugs or his letting he wrote to the anti-doping agency filled with lies, I do agree with Agassi coming out about this. This little secret could have gone to the grave with him and that would have been fine also. But for Andre to be honest and truthful to his fans and peers his something that I will keep as a memory of him for a long time. One of his biggest reasons for telling this was in hope that others wouldn't follow in his footsteps and I praise Agassi for that move. He did to preserve the game that he loves and that's all anyone can ask for.
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The amount he moved up and down in the rankings shows that the effects of such drugs are horrible, even on world class athletes. But it is rather remarkable how he came back as soon as he stopped taking the drug, showing that it is never too late to stop a bad habit.
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of athletes get into things like drugs that effect their career in negative ways. But coming out and being a "spokesperson" about it takes a lot more guts. His story could change the mind of other people that think about doing drugs by seeing the extreme negative effects that it had to Agassi.
ReplyDeletethat's awesome that he cleaned up his life and was able to clime his way back up to the top ten!
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