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Andre Agassi admits to wearing a hair weave in upcoming autobiography "Open" (pictures)
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Saturday, Oct. 31 - Just when we were beginning to absorb former world #1 tennis player Andre Agassi's admission of a crystal meth habit, which he now admits to doing periodically "for a year or so", then his admission of having always "hated tennis with a dark and secret passion" as a result of being forced into the game by an overbearing father, he comes out with another bombshell that his legendary spiked mullet (seen here on the left) was in fact a hair weave - a weave that nearly fell out during the 1990 French Open.
- View photos of 8 time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi at bottom of screen
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In a recent interview with People magazine in which Andre discusses his upcoming autobiography, he said " I tried to turn a harder lens on myself than anyone else", and new excerpts from the book released Friday elaborate as to the incident which eventually led the career Grand Slam champion to shave off all of his hair. He tells of having sent his brother running all around Paris to find bobby pins to keep his disintegrating weave from coming off his head before a match in the 1990 French Open - a year in which he reached the final before losing to Andres Gomez of Ecuador, who Agassi was heavily favored against. Excerpts are as follows:
“Of course I could play without my hairpiece. But after months of derision, criticism, mockery, I’m too self-conscious,” he wrote. “Image Is Everything? What would they say if they knew? Win or lose, they wouldn’t talk about my game. They’d only talk about my hair. I can close my eyes and almost hear it. And I know I can’t take it.”
Reaction to Andre's admissions of drug use from tennis's top stars have ranged from supportive to harsh, and in Serena Williams case it was an opportunity seized to promote her own autobiography titled "On the Line", which she was recently in Tampa to promote. Some of the more notable responses are as follows:
Martina Navratilova: "Shocking. Not as much shock that he did it as shock he lied about it and didn't own up to it. He's up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I'm concerned. He owned up to it (in the book), but it doesn't help now ... Andre lied and got away with it. You can't correct that now. Do you take away a title he wouldn't have won if he had been suspended? He beat some people when he should have been suspended."
Andy Roddick: "Andre is and always will be my idol. I will judge him on how he has treated me and how he has changed the world for (the) better."
Serena Williams: "I don't even know what crystal meth is, so, you know, that's what my reaction to it is ... I haven't read anything about Andre Agassi's book. All I know is I have a book coming out. It's called 'On The Line'".
Rafael Nadal: "If the ATP covered for Agassi then I think that's dreadful. If they covered for the player and punished others for doing the same kind of thing then that would seem to me to be a lack of respect for all sportsmen ... Now that he is retired, he comes out and says this? It's a way of senselessly damaging the sport."
Agassi has also released details of his first marriage to actress Brooke Shields in which he explains their initial attraction as well as fits of jealousy on his part - particularly when she did a guest appearance on the popular 90's TV show "Friends". The media blitz which has so far surrounded Andre's upcoming book has driven it into the top 10 on Amazon's rankings and is certain to go up even higher when Agassi appears on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, November 8th. "Open" will be on bookshelves everywhere on November 9th. With seemingly at least one bombshell being released every day however, the question will be whether there is anything left to surprise readers with by then.
Yahoo! Sports Blog contributed to this report
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