Yes it’s been beaten to death but after his [Andre’s] 60 Minutes interview I’ve got to say something.
The risk he took putting the content he did in the book comes at a greater risk to him than reward, current tour players say he should be penalized for being able to get away with such a thing. The thing I don’t understand is why the ATP officials who accepted the letter from Andre stating he’d taken a sip from his assistants’ spiked soda decided to cover everything up.
Where are they in this matter? Everyone’s pointing fingers at Andre and saying he should be stripped of the titles he won after 1997 (because in 1997 Andre didn’t win squat except for a Challenger Title in Burbank, he played 24 matches, and sunk to #141 as of 11/10/1997) But what about the tour officials who accepted the letter, dumped all records of Andre failing the test, and let him continue to play? Why didn’t they just ban him from tour until further investigation like they did to Richard Gasquet?
"Every day from that second chance I had I've been atoning for this -- it has been a heavy weight on me. This book is an atonement of sorts because in it I believe I give the tools and inspirations to help a lot of people that I'll never meet in a lot of different ways.” Said Andre in an exclusive CNN interview, “People who wake up in a life that they find themselves in; people who wake up in a marriage they don't want be in; teenagers who are struggling to understand who they are, and are maybe trying to find ways to avoid the pitfalls I found myself falling into.”
Andre knows himself that he has more to lose than to gain from the inclusion of his Meth use in the book than if he’d left it out. But Andre himself says [from his 60 Minutes interview]
“Why would I write a book called Open and not include one of the darkest moments in my life?”
I have to agree, you can’t be open without including all the nitty gritty details, even if you know it might cost you everything you’ve worked for after, which for Andre includes five grand slam titles and eight Masters Series titles...and that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what Andre won from 1998-2006, other players said he should return the money as well (mainly Marat Safin haha…but he’s retired now) so...you want Andre to return a little over $17 million dollars? I don’t know anyone who’s got that much cash on hand in their bank account (maybe Bill Gates or Oprah…) but that’s a little outrageous.
So again I ask, why is everyone pointing fingers at Andre, who played so badly the year he admits to taking Meth (1997) and after that from 1998-2006 staged one of the most miraculous comebacks ever in the history of tennis with a clean slate (no meth)? Why isn’t anyone asking about the ATP officials who dumped the records and continued to let him play? Maybe someone should point fingers at them instead.
Thoughts...comments...hate it...love it...leave it here.