Tennis

LONDON (AP) -- The ATP Tour will not reopen a doping case against Andre Agassi even though he admitted to lying about using crystal meth in 1997.

Agassi revealed in his recent autobiography that he failed a 1997 drug test, a result he says was thrown out after he lied by claiming he "unwittingly" took crystal meth.

However, ATP chairman Adam Helfant said on Friday that there was no way to sanction the American retroactively since he has retired from tennis.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Suspended Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse are launching appeals with European authorities challenging the legality of the whereabouts rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Victory at the European Commission in Brussels and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights could force WADA to change its rules on when and where athletes can be tested out of competition.

"The indispensable fight against doping is not the issue here. The problem is the lack of proportionality of certain measures," their lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The athletes are already appealing their one-year bans before the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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PARIS (AP) -- Third-seeded Novak Djokovic scrambled to a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (3) victory over local favorite Gael Monfils on Sunday to win the Paris Masters for the first time.

The victory gave Djokovic back-to-back ATP Tour titles after his win over top-ranked Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors final last Sunday.

The third-ranked Djokovic also beat World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals in Paris and will be a strong favorite when he'll try to defend his title at the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 22-29 in London.

PARIS (AP) -- Known for furious, racket-throwing rants, Marat Safin would rather be remembered for the hard work he put in during a 12-year career marked by two Grand Slam titles and a Davis Cup win.

The former No. 1 ended his career Wednesday after losing to Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters.

"A lot of people there really thought that I'm not a really hard worker," Safin said. "But you can ask all my coaches how I dedicated myself to tennis. They will tell you it's completely the opposite of what a lot of people think."

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So what do people want from their heroes, anyway: after-the-fact transparency or the perpetuation of fraud? Here we are, still wading through the slime of the Steroids Era, rightfully crucifying juicers for trying to hide behind walls of deceit. And yet, some of the same critics are pummeling Andre Agassi for volunteering 12 years after his sin -- when it would have been far more convenient to keep living the lie -- that he failed a drug test and deceived the ATP by writing a letter claiming he "unwittingly'' used crystal meth.

The admission, in an autobiography called Open,' is crippling to Agassi's reputation as one of sport's good guys. By outing himself, he hurts his family, his numerous charitable causes, his credibility and the image we have of his complete body of work, not good when one of his defining ad campaigns once had him declaring, "Image is everything.'' Knowing the damage that was forthcoming, he came clean nonetheless about his recreational drug problem, unlike the high-profile baseball stars whose performance-enhancing crimes have been revealed in investigations and exposés.

A reflective Andre Agassi gave his first TV interview on CBS' 60 Minutes since the shocking excerpts from his autobiography were released to the public less than two weeks ago.

Katie Couric pressed Agassi on many of the revelations from his book, including the pressure he felt from his father, his secret sentiments toward the sport that made him famous and the admission that he frequently used crystal meth with his trainer in 1997.

"I have to call it like it is," Agassi said when asked about the motivations behind revealing his past. "And hating tennis was a deep part of my life for a long, long time."

Agassi was visibly emotional -- saying he was scared, isolated and "living a fraud" during his years in the tennis spotlight.

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The International Tennis Federation has completed its two-month "investigation'' into Serena Williams' f-bomb-laced, threatening tirade toward a line judge on worldwide TV at the U.S. Open. Her "punishment'' should come Monday or Tuesday.

I would give just about anything to see the notes from this "investigation.'' The quote-marks show that this was just a theoretical thing, anyway. As in, it took two months to find "justice.''

This whole thing has been a sham. Will Williams be suspended from the next major, the Australian Open in January?

"I don't think [an Australian Open ban] would make much sense, because it would penalize the people handing out the punishment,'' ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said. "For the grand slam committee to exclude her from a grand slam doesn't seem likely.

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REGGIO CALABRIA, Italy (AP) -- The Williams sisters were conspicuous by their absence on Sunday when Italy completed a shutout of the United States to win its second Fed Cup title in four years.

Yet the Americans who did play had no regrets and the victorious Italians felt there was no need to put an asterisk next to their victory.

"I wanted to come here. I wanted to play for my country. Other people choose different things," U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin said after her 7-5, 6-2 loss to Flavia Pennetta gave Italy an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

"Some people I guess didn't want to play as badly as I did. But I think that the team that we had here really wanted to be here," Oudin said. "You don't want people here that don't want to be here. Even if you lose, if you give it everything you have, then that's the best you can do."

Serena Williams was just two points away from a semifinals exit from the U.S. Open back in September when she began her now infamous tirade at the lineswoman who helped make her departure a reality by calling a foot fault that sparked the meltdown.

Now, nearly two months later, the ITF has announced they will make a ruling on her further punishment within two weeks. She was originally fined $10,500 -- $10,000 maximum on-court fine allowed plus $500 for racquet abuse -- but potentially faces more fines and a possible suspension from the WTA.

"It's in the hands of the Grand Slam administrator, who I believe has now completed his investigation and will be making a ruling within the next two weeks," United States Tennis Association President Lucy Garvin told The Associated Press on Friday. "That's what we have been told -- that Serena would hear, we would hear."

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The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency acknowledged that it's too late to punish Andre Agassi for his failed drug test from 1997, darned statute of limitations. But WADA said it still wants some punishment, anyway. Maybe for Agassi's lies to doping officials, which he admits in his book? Maybe for perjury?

Doubtful. But I knew tennis would get its pound of flesh, anyway, as Agassi has embarrassed the sport's governing bodies. What I didn't know was how fast they would get that flesh.

Or that they would take it from Yanina Wickmayer.

She was banned Thursday for a year for a doping offense. It wasn't for failing a test, or apparently even for missing one, though details still aren't out. It was because she failed to report three times to doping officials over the past 18 months where she would be.