Are Agassi's revelations a publicity stunt?

New Delhi:

Tennis legend Andre Agassi has been breaking many boundaries since excerpts of his autobiography 'Open' have come out in the open.

Agassi's autobiography 'Open' hits the stands in America on the November 9. And there's sure going to be a crazy rush, despite sports personalities like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova and even Sergei Bubka condemning his dark secrets. But is Agassi revealing shocking truths about himself just to boost the sale of his book or are they confessions of a man who's lived too many lies all his life?

The revelations emerging from Agassi's autobiography are getting more and more shocking by the day. His latest confession is how his autocratic father would force him to load his body with caffeine before national tournaments, and on one occasion, even the banned drug 'Speed'.

Your Say: Are Andre Agassi's revelations unnecessary?

The tennis icon might consider himself lucky that the World Anti Doping Agency or WADA had not come into existence at that time, and even now is powerless to do anything, thanks to an 8-year statute of limitations. There still is the matter of perjury though.

His revelations have sure miffed former Olympic Pole-Vault champion and current member of the International Olympic Committee, Sergei Bubka.

"I would prefer to review it from a legal point of view and then to act. It is terrible and harmful. That he lied and escaped and continued to compete is really disappointing," Bubka said.

It's not just sport-lovers who Agassi has managed to shock. Thousands of women around the world, who were die-hard fans thanks to his charismatic image were in a for a rude wake-up call too, when the 8 times Grand Slam champion revealed that the lion's-mane hairstyle he sported in the 1990s was actually a wig.
 
Hair-raising, as these confessions might be, the question everyone, including 6-time Grand Slam champion and an Agassi contemporary, Boris Becker, is asking is - why is Agassi coming out with these revelations, highly damaging not just to himself, but also the image of tennis? Surely it's not because of the money.

"I'm struggling to get my head around why Andre would want to confess to something so damaging and then getting away with it? Why would he want to be so brutally honest," Becker said.

WADA, though, cannot do anything because they have an 8-year statute of limitations, but they are exhorting ATP and ITF to take this up.

"We believe that the tennis authorities should be investigating the possibility of perjury, and also looking at Agassi's entourage. Letters will be going out to the tennis authorities next week," said David Howman, director general of WADA.