Agassi's stunning admission, made in an autobiography launched this week, that in 1997 he had snorted crystal meth and had been caught by the sport's drug testers only for him to plead ignorance, blame an accomplice and get off scot-free, is unlikely to be re-visited by tennis authorities.

Yet the deceit freely admitted by one of the superstars of the game will sit uneasily with the tennis powerbrokers and the global sporting bureaucracy. Agassi may have blamed his drug taking on worry about his relationship at the time with the actress Brooke Shields, but the revelation of Agassi's pretence is explosive.

Recalls Agassi at the time he was notified by the tennis doctor of his positive result as he walked through a New York airport: "My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I've achieved, whatever I've worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals]. It's filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth.

"I say Slim, whom I've since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth - which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter. I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely.

"I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it."

After receiving the letter the ATP drugs tribunal decided not to impose a penalty. There was no public notification of his positive test result.

Even though Agassi reveals how he duped the drug tribunal, retrospective legislation under the World Anti-Doping Agency, which may have stripped Agassi of any prizemoney and titles won at that time, is limited to eight years.