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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Defiant Agassi has no regrets about tell-all book
Source: Agencies |
November 14, 2009, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ANDRE Agassi said he has no regrets about baring his life in his recently published memoirs and his use of crystal meth despite criticism from the tennis community, adding that his wife Steffi Graf was proud of him.
In "Open", Agassi describes loathing the tennis life he was pushed into by his father and reveals that a deep depression in 1997 led him to use the recreational drug, and that he lied to officials about using crystal meth after testing positive.
"I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant waters, but again nothing really worthwhile in life comes without great sacrifice," Agassi said in an interview on Thursday after a book signing that drew nearly 500 people on a rainy day in New York.
"How do you regret your life, how do you regret telling the truth? This is the only chance I have to communicate the power of my journey. That's why I called the book "Open". That's why it took me three years to write it.
"I want this thing to impact millions of people I've never met."
The backlash to Agassi's book has been intense.
World No. 2 Rafael Nadal said cheats in tennis must be punished. Sergi Bruguera, who lost the 1996 Atlanta Olympic final to Agassi, said the gold medal should be forfeited. Former US and Australian Open champion Marat Safin said Agassi should return any tainted prize money and titles.
Agassi said he hurt himself, not the game, by turning to the drug after plunging to the depths of depression.
"I say I made a choice to hurt myself, destroy myself and during the year that I was involved with the horrifying drug, crystal meth, I didn't win anything, I didn't do anything, I pulled out of everything.
"As far as I'm concerned you can take that entire year and take it away."
Agassi, 39, said that while negative comments had gotten a lot of publicity, he had been moved by many messages of support.
"I got a lot of support, and I mean immediately," he said.
Agassi, who has two children from his current marriage to former tennis great Graf, said he had his own kids in mind when he took on the project.
"I wrote this book with them first and foremost on my mind. To not be scared to deal with the truth, but also understand that people make mistakes and it's not the mistakes that is the problem. The problem is what we do with it."
In "Open", Agassi describes loathing the tennis life he was pushed into by his father and reveals that a deep depression in 1997 led him to use the recreational drug, and that he lied to officials about using crystal meth after testing positive.
"I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant waters, but again nothing really worthwhile in life comes without great sacrifice," Agassi said in an interview on Thursday after a book signing that drew nearly 500 people on a rainy day in New York.
"How do you regret your life, how do you regret telling the truth? This is the only chance I have to communicate the power of my journey. That's why I called the book "Open". That's why it took me three years to write it.
"I want this thing to impact millions of people I've never met."
The backlash to Agassi's book has been intense.
World No. 2 Rafael Nadal said cheats in tennis must be punished. Sergi Bruguera, who lost the 1996 Atlanta Olympic final to Agassi, said the gold medal should be forfeited. Former US and Australian Open champion Marat Safin said Agassi should return any tainted prize money and titles.
Agassi said he hurt himself, not the game, by turning to the drug after plunging to the depths of depression.
"I say I made a choice to hurt myself, destroy myself and during the year that I was involved with the horrifying drug, crystal meth, I didn't win anything, I didn't do anything, I pulled out of everything.
"As far as I'm concerned you can take that entire year and take it away."
Agassi, 39, said that while negative comments had gotten a lot of publicity, he had been moved by many messages of support.
"I got a lot of support, and I mean immediately," he said.
Agassi, who has two children from his current marriage to former tennis great Graf, said he had his own kids in mind when he took on the project.
"I wrote this book with them first and foremost on my mind. To not be scared to deal with the truth, but also understand that people make mistakes and it's not the mistakes that is the problem. The problem is what we do with it."
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