Tennis officials have closed the book on Andre Agassi's drug revelations.
International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti said on Wednesday that despite appeals from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the statute of limitations in the case expired long ago and no retroactive punishment was possible.
In Agassi's recently published autobiography, Open , he wrote that he ingested crystal meth in 1997 and then lied to the ATP to avoid a suspension after failing a doping test.
“The ATP is the only entity that could have shed light on what happened, but it's too late,” Bitti said. “WADA asked information from the ATP without much success. As a member of WADA's executive committee, I'm obviously very disappointed that Agassi — such a great and emblematic player — decided to make these revelations.
“I'm sure he had his reasons, which were not easy to understand.... There were a lot of strange reasons involved.
“From a sports point of view, it's very unfortunate. I think what he did hurt our sport.”
In another drug issue, Bitti expressed concern over the appeals launched by Belgian players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse, who were given one—year bans for violating WADA's whereabouts rule.
The suspensions were lifted in December after the players appealed to a Belgian court, and both still have appeals pending with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
