Andre Agassi, one of the greatest players in modern tennis, has confessed to using the highly addictive illegal drug crystal methamphetamine while a player.

The winner of eight grand slam titles including Wimbledon in 1992 has revealed he lied to the game's governing body, the Association of Tennis Professionals, by claiming he had taken the drug by accident.

In his forthcoming book, serialised in the Times, Agassi says he took crystal meth at a time of personal and professional turmoil in 1997.

To the outside world Agassi had it all: a glamorous fiancee – the actor Brooke Shields – wealth, fame and respect from fans of tennis.

He writes of taking the drug while at home with an assistant he refers to only by the name of Slim.

"Slim is stressed too … He says, You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell's gack? Crystal meth. Why do they call it gack? Because that's the sound you make when you're high … Make you feel like Superman, dude.

"As if they're coming out of someone else's mouth, I hear these words: You know what? Fuck it. Yeah. Let's get high.

"Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've just crossed.

"There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. 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 from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds."

In the book Agassi tells of the moment he received the call from a doctor working for the ATP, telling him he had tested positive for drugs. "There is doom in his voice, as if he's going to tell me I'm dying," the grand slam champion writes. "And that's exactly what he tells me.

"He reminds me that tennis has three classes of drug violation," Agassi writes. "Performance-enhancing drugs … would constitute a class 1, he says, which would carry a suspension of two years. However, he adds, crystal meth would seem to be a clear case of class 2. Recreational drugs." That would carry a much lower suspension of three months.

Agassi goes on to tell how he duped the ATP: "My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I've achieved, whatever I've worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. It's filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth.

"I say Slim, whom I've since fired, is a known drug user, and 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 understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: sincerely.

"I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it."

The ATP accepted Agassi's version of events.

Agassi, now 39, has retired from professional tennis.

Vikram Dodd, The Guardian, 28.10.09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oct/28/agassi-took-crystal-meth