‘Lied and Got Away With It’ – Martina Navratilova Once Chastised American Icon Andre Agassi Over His Substance Abuse Confession

Former Czech-American tennis player Martina Navratilova often provides her input regarding various matters in tennis, as she has been working as an expert after retirement. In 2009, she expressed her views about a sensitive matter, which involved Andre Agassi and his substance abuse.

In his autobiography, the former American tennis player revealed about failing a drug test. However, Navratilova did not like the way Agassi explained this incident, as she criticized the former player.

Martina Navratilova criticized Andre Agassi for lying about a failed drug test

In 2009, eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi published his autobiography, ‘Open’, in which he admitted he used crystal meth in 1997. Later, he failed a drug test as well because of that. In his book, he also said that he did not receive any charges because he took that substance unwillingly. 

That particular part came as a surprise to Navratilova, as she said, “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.“

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Later, she further said, “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.”

Notably, both Navratilova and Agassi retired from professional tennis in 2006. Even though Navratilova continued to work as a tennis expert on various TV channels, Agassi has stayed away from the limelight, along with his wife, Steffi Graf.

Navratilova played tennis at the age of 50

In terms of her singles career, the 18-time Grand Slam champion kind of stayed goodbye to the singles competition in 1994. Early in 2000, she returned to tennis but mostly played in doubles competitions.

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In terms of doubles tournaments, she won 177 titles in her career. Out of those, she won 31 doubles Grand Slam titles and 10 mixed doubles titles. She was just a month away from turning 50, as she won the mixed doubles title at the US Open in 2006. After that, she announced her retirement from professional tennis.