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.

With the recent suspensions of Belgian players Yanina Wickmayer and Xaiver Malisse, and the controversy surrounding their rather quick decisions in the light of Andre Agassi’s admitting to the use of Crystal Meth back in 1997…what other tour players have been the victim of this outrageous policy?

Quoted from a BBC article online:

"The official who came to my home wanted me to produce identification to prove who I was. He insisted on watching me provide a sample, literally with my trousers round my ankles, and then insisted that I wrote down my own address, even though he was at my private home at 7am."

            This is one of Andy Murray’s experiences with the ATP drug testing policy for out of competition testing. Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with this picture? Murray had just returned home from the Australian Open earlier that morning, and in his jet lagged state was greeted by an official who made these outrageous demands to a jetlagged Murray. But Murray is not alone.

            "I am the first who wants a clean sport but the way things are being done is, in my opinion, not right," world #2 Rafael Nadal says, "It's too much to have to say where you are every day of your life, even my mother doesn’t know where I am everyday.”

            Under the new rules the ATP signed up for with the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) players must be available for officials one hour each day, between the hours of 6 am and 11pm, and all must be entered online three months in advance. Three months in advance? I think the only people who know where’re they’re going to be three months ahead of time… well I don’t think anyone does, unless you’re in prison. Especially with the almost nomadic lifestyle tennis players live, traveling around the world every week, being constantly jetlagged, and the only time they have to relax is six weeks out of the year from the beginning of December to mid January when the Australian Open begins (unless of course players choose to play in the warm up tournaments prior, the two most notable being the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, and the Medibank International in Sydney.)

            Although officials admit that the nomadic nature of a player’s life makes it difficult to predict where they will be at any time. Yet they still enforce these outrageous rules even though they admit it themselves that, “They are unique in that they don’t know when they will leave a tournament, how long a match will last, when they have to appear at a tournament or where they will be headed next,” an ATP spokesperson said. Sort of contradicting isn’t it?

            Even Wickmayer, who’s the latest victim of the new rules, had this to say:

"The people who made the rules are not really conscious of what this means for my future," Wickmayer said. "I am No. 16 in the world. They are taking my work of 10 years away. Just like that! Just because I didn't fill in my whereabouts," "They should inform us better on how this system works," she said. "I am being punished for something that was not in my hands that I had no control over."

            Wickmayer corresponded with anti-doping officials to have registered mail sent to her residence in Belgium where she lives with her father who is also her coach. But several months out of the year the two of them travel to tournaments around the world and that registered mail that gets sent to their home goes unanswered…how hard is it to e-mail or call Wickmayer as I’m sure that the WTA and WADA have her information on file.

            So what happens to these guys if they miss a flight or a flight gets delayed and they’re not where they’re going to be when they said they were three months ago when they entered the information into the online data? They get a strike? Absurd, I’m on the side of the players, something needs to be done…and soon.

            Hate it, love it, let me hear your thoughts.

It is official.

Today, November 18^th, 2009, banned Belgians Xaiver Malisse and #16 Yanina Wickmayer have both filed appeals with the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn their one year bans for failing to report their whereabouts three times to WADA officials and Malisse missed one doping test.

Even so, both players would miss the first three months of the 2010 season if their appeals are accepted and the bans are overturned, decisions take about four months to make.

The court has overturned the bans of players before (Richard Gasquet, Guillermo Canas to name two of the higher profile cases overturned).

Let’s hope that the CAS announces good results for both Malisse and Wickmayer and overturns their bans for not being able to report their whereabouts, because there’s a ruling in the WADA that just doesn’t make sense to me: “Under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules, elite athletes must be available for out-of-competition testing for one hour a day, 365 days a year. They must give three months’ notice of where they will be so they can be tested.”

What qualifies you as an “elite athlete”? The WADA is very vague on the definition if there is one, but I would think it would apply to tennis players as top 10 ranked. If this was so, Wickmayer’s ban wouldn’t even qualify seeing as she’s #16, and Malisse is ranked at #95.

Let’s hope justice is served and these players are able to compete again, because three months advance notice on where you’re going to be for an hour out of the day is downright criminal for people who’re doing something they love so much.