After reading the first posting in the War Room regarding Andre Agassi's recent events, I agree with Bradley on the ATP officials being the true evil-doers in the entire ordeal.
The ATP itself responded to Agassi's revelation by admitting”Under the tennis anti-doping program it is, and always has been, an independent panel that makes a decision on whether a doping violation has been found."
If this "independent panel" of "anti-doping professionals" knew anything about anything they should in fact know that Crystal Methamphetamine is not just some sort of tasteless substance, and you can’t just slip it in your drink and not know it’s there. Sure it has no odor, but it can surely be tasted if mixed with something. So why accept Agassi’s outrageous claim that “he accidentally sipped from his (then) assistant’s can of Coke”? Why didn’t Andre immediately tell ATP officials rather than wait until he’d been called to be informed he’d failed a drug test?
What about had Agassi not been American, a former number 1 player or the poster boy for the ATP and millions in sponsorships? Would they have done what they did to...say for example Guillermo Canas? Suspend him for 2 years for ingesting medication which happened to contain a banned substance yet was still prescribed by ATP tournament doctors in Acapulco during tournament play?
Canas was handed a two-year ban, but he knew he was innocent, what did it end up causing him? He had to forfeit $276,070 in prize money (but was later restored after he appeal was successful and he only served fifteen months of the two year ban) Canas’s ranking points (which were enough to have him at #8 in the world) were not restored upon his return to tournament play, and over $700,000 in lawyer fees to battle the false claim in the Court for Arbitration of Sport (which of course, wasn’t restored or reimbursed)
For Agassi, what occurred? All documents pertaining to the failed drug test were discarded and he was allowed to stage one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history, compiling over $17 million in prize money.
I am all for keeping professional tennis free from steroids, hgh and whatever other performance-enhancing drugs are publicly available today. Doing that is a critical part of the efforts to keep tennis a clean sport for all athletes and fans to enjoy. But performance-inhibiting drugs are a different matter, in fact if my opponent smoked some marijuana or used cocaine before our match I’d have no objection…I’d expect my chances to win to increase ten-fold.
All jokes aside though, if you’re going to enforce anti-doping rules, don’t play favorites and treat everyone as equals, all players on tour work extremely hard whether you’re #1 or #101.
The Guru has spoken.