Safin blasts "guilty" Agassi
Marat Safin blasts "guilty" Agassi
Also In The News
|
By James Christie
Russian Marat Safin extended his career by saving three match points in his first round match at his last ever tournament. |  |
Tuesday, 10, Nov 2009 04:53
By Michael Younger.
Former world number one Marat Safin believes Andre Agassi should give his tennis titles back after confessing he tested positive for a banned substance during his career and lied about it to the ATP.
The Russian, who plans to retire this month, said in an interview with L'Equipe newspaper on Tuesday that Agassi should "give his titles, his money and his Grand Slam titles back".
"OK, so he feels guilty? Then he should give back his titles, his money and his Grand Slams," Safin said.
"If he's about fair play, he should go all the way. You know, the ATP have a bank account, he can pay them back if he wants to.
"The question is: why has he done that? What's done is done. He wants to sell more books? That's completely stupid.
"I'm not defending the ATP, but what he said puts them in a bad position. The ATP allowed him to win lots of tournaments and lots of money and kept his secret, so why be bad to them? Sometimes you need to know when to shut up."
Agassi wrote in his autobiography "Open" that he used crystal meth in 1997 and failed a drug test - a result he says was thrown out after he lied by saying he "unwittingly" took the substance.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) are said to be currently investigating whether to lay fresh charges against Agassi.