ATP - No Agassi investigation

ATP chairman Adam Helfant

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The ATP have confirmed they will not be reinvestigating Andre Agassi's positive drugs test in 1997 and cannot impose retrospective sanctions.

The former world number one sent shockwaves through the tennis world when he revealed in his recent autobiography that he failed a drugs test after using crystal meth and subsequently lied about how it came to be in his system to avoid a ban.

Both Agassi and the ATP have come in for criticism in light of the scandal with Marat Safin calling for Agassi to give back his titles and prize money.

However, in the face of condemnation from the World Anti-Doping Agency amongst others, ATP chairman Adam Helfant has spoken out.

"The ATP's policy is we don't comment on doping matters unless a doping violation is found and that will continue to be our policy but I thought some perspective was in order," he said ahead of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which begin at the O2 in London on Sunday.

"I asked an outside law firm to go through the records from 1997 so I had all the facts. Andre Agassi has admitted he failed a drugs test in 1997 and regrettably he then lied about it. Even more regrettably he got away with it.

"In compliance with the ATP's anti-doping policy, no disclosure was made. If we had revealed that test it would have been in contravention of the rules at the time.

"There has been a lot of speculation about whether the ATP would reopen the case but we cannot do that because he's no longer playing on the tour. We have responded to WADA but what was said will remain between us and will not be made public."

Whereabouts policy under fire

The ATP's current drugs policy has come under fire from the top players, with Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal particularly vocal in their disapproval of WADA's 'whereabouts' rule.

The issue has hit the headlines again in the last week, with Belgian pair Xavier Malisse and Yanina Wickmayer being handed one-year bans after failing foul of the rule.

Helfant concedes there are issues with the current system and confirmed that the ATP are in discussions with WADA.

"The whereabouts programme was originally meant for out-of-competition testing and it's a programme that's one size fits all," he continued.

"So the question is how should it be applied to a sport that's in competition nearly all the year? We are in conversation with WADA about the technical issues."