Addicts who adhere to the 12-step program will tell you the first step toward recovery is admitting there’s a problem.

Enablers have a slightly different approach to problem solving: denial, obfuscation and cover up at all costs.

In his new memoir “Open” which will be released on November 9th, Andre Agassi makes a stunning admission: in 1997 he used crystal meth.

In an excerpt from “Open” published by The Times Of London, the 39-year-old Agassi recounts how his personal and professional crisis’ converged in 1997 — he was questioning his impending marriage to actress Brooke Shields and his commitment to tennis — prompting him to try the drug. Agassi writes that his personal assistant, identified as “Slim” in the book, turned him on to the drug.

“Slim is stressed too … He says, You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell’s gack? Crystal meth,” Agassi recounts in the book in an excerpt published by The Times. “Why do they call it gack? Because that’s the sound you make when you’re high … Make you feel like Superman, dude.

“As if they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth, I hear these words: You know what? F*** it. Yeah. Let’s get high. Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed. There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy.”

In and of itself, it’s not an outrageously unbelievable revelation though certainly it will surprise some fans who have watched Agassi grow from the brash, flashy tennis rebel dressed in day-glow and denim; into a Grand Slam champion into one of the most charismatic tennis stars the nation has ever produced; into a man who nearly threw his gift for the game away while wallowing in self-doubt; into one of the great comeback stories the sport has seen, who played some of the best tennis of his life after the age of 30; into a widely respected ambassador for the game, a tennis traditionalist in many ways who took the court in his later years clad in all white and spoke of valuing the process of playing as much as claiming the prizes that come from it; into one half of a tennis dream team upon his marriage to Hall of Famer Steffi Graf; to a devoted dad to son Jaden Gil and daughter Jaz Elle; into an advocate and contributor to educational and social causes; into an active force of positive change who built the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, his charter school that offers education to more 250 students.

Has any Open Era No. 1 evolved as profoundly as Agassi has over the course of his career?

The fact that Agassi, who displayed an experimental edge in his younger years, did drugs will not come as a jaw-dropping revelation to many close to the circuit.

The fact that Agassi alleges the ATP staged a complete cover-up by accepting his alibi and discarding his positive drug test — as well as the inevitable speculation about whether Agassi and other top 10 players committed other drug offenses that were concealed — is the real bombshell that resounds with more force than Agassi’s ripping returns off a 135 mph serves.

Agassi opens up and the ATP covers up.

Sometime after he first tried crystal meth, Agassi writes he was talking through New York City’s LaGuardia airport when he received a call from a doctor working for the ATP who informed him he has failed a drug test. Agassi, according to the excerpt published by The Times, realized the ramifications of the positive test and lied to the ATP about how the drug entered his system.

“There is doom in his voice, as if he’s going to tell me I’m dying,” Agassi writes. “And that’s exactly what he tells me. He reminds me that tennis has three classes of drug violation. Performance-enhancing drugs … would constitute a Class 1, he says, which would carry a suspension of two years. However, he adds, crystal meth would seem to be a clear case of Class 2. Recreational drugs. That would mean a three-month suspension.

“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. 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.”

It’s the lies that followed — the ATP allegedly accepting his alibi, covering up the result and discarding any follow-up — that are even more disturbing.

Asked for its response to Agassi’s admission and its alleged actions, the ATP offered a non-answer.

“It has always been ATP policy not to comment on anti-doping test results unless and until an anti-doping violation has occurred,” an ATP spokesman told Tennis Week in a statement. “Under the tennis anti-doping program it is, and has always been, an independent panel that makes a decision on whether a doping violation has been found. The ATP has always followed this rule and no executive at the ATP has therefore had the authority or ability to decide the outcome of an anti-doping matter.”

Denying complicity in this case would be as wise as denying the existence of the doubles alley and the ATP has no intention of admitting its role either so essentially, the ATP adopts the Mark McGwire “I’m not here to talk about the past” policy, apparently hoping the whole issue will last as long as a tournament.

While the ATP tries to distance itself by pointing the finger at the “independent panel” the fact is the ATP itself was responsible for administering and executing its own anti-doping policy in 1997, according to the International Tennis Federation.

Today, the ITF released a statement that absolved itself of any involvement in the Agassi case. The ITF points out that Agassi’s drug use occurred nearly a decade before it took administrative authority over the ATP’s anti-doping program, which indirectly puts the onus on the ATP to explain its actions.

“The ITF is surprised and disappointed by the remarks made by Andre Agassi in his biography admitting substance abuse in 1997. Such comments in no way reflect the fact that the Tennis Anti-Doping Program is currently regarded as one of the most rigorous and comprehensive anti-doping programs in sport,” ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said in a statement. “The events in question occurred before the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded in 1999 and during the formative years of anti-doping in tennis when the program was managed by individual governing bodies. The ITF first signed the WADA Code in 2004, and the Tennis Anti-Doping Program undergoes constant review and improvement. In 2006, the ITF assumed responsibility for administration of the anti-doping program on behalf of the ATP and then, in 2007, also on behalf of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. The ITF, Grand Slams, ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are now unified in their efforts to keep tennis free of drug use, and this should not be overshadowed by an incident that took place over 12 years ago. The statements by Mr. Agassi do, however, provide confirmation that a tough Anti-Doping Program is needed.”

While the game’s governing bodies are busy proclaiming “it’s not our fault!” how about someone — anyone — at the ATP or elsewhere stepping up and investigating how such a cover-up could occur, who is responsible for it and how can they be sure it has not happened before or since that case?

Honestly, you’ve got a better chance of seeing Agassi play Sampras in next year’s Wimbledon final than seeing the ATP come clean.

It’s likely the ATP already knows the answers to many of those questions, which is another reason why they probably won’t be offering them for public consumption any time soon. Additionally, if a governing body is aware one of its players has a substance problem isn’t there an ethical obligation to help that player get treatment, particularly dealing with a dangerous and highly addictive drug like meth?

“I can’t speak to addiction, but a lot of people would say that if you’re using anything as an escape, you have a problem,” Agassi told People Magazine in comments published yesterday.

Tennis has always been a star-driven sport, but while the game’s governing bodies are busy tossing around terms like “integrity”,  “transparency” and the good-old stand-by “for the good of the game” when discussing its anti-doping program and tennis integrity unit created to combat gambling allegations, what concrete actions can the ATP truly claim it made in this case?

Because if the ATP refuses to divulge anything more about this case then its actions tell you that there’s more than a star system at work in tennis, there’s a clear double-standard in applying its rules to players and that creates fundamental questions about the integrity of the game and how it is administered.

It’s the competitive equivalent of a class system where the Ivo Minars and Simon Laroses of the tennis world are cast aside for drug offenses while stars like Agassi or Richard Gasquet, who said his positive cocaine test in Miami in March was the result of a contaminated kiss from a girl he met in a club, play on propelling the professional machine onward.

As for Agassi, the fact that a future Hall of Famer who left the game with a well-earned reputation polished to near pristine state has the guts to admit to drug use that could potentially damage his image is admirable and could serve as an inspiration to others who have flirted with drug use while helping spike sales of the book.  It reinforces the old life lesson “there’s no shame in falling down, the same is in not getting up when you fall.”

Those who have read the complete memoir say that the salacious drug details are not a big part of the book — that the entire episode is presented as a moment in which Agassi tried crystal meth, realized its addictive properties and quickly stopped taking the drug.

Some speculate there may be another motivation behind the revelation. That Agassi, anticipating former agent, business partner and friend Perry Rogers, who once served on the ATP Board and who had a contentious falling out with Agassi (Rogers filed a lawsuit against Graf at one point and now Agassi and Rogers are disentangling themselves from past business relationships), could write a tell-all book of his own. If that’s the case, then Agassi beat Rogers to the punch by candidly detailing some of his past transgressions, effectively taking control over his own story and how it is told and sold.

Ultimately, how you view Agassi is obviously entirely up to you. Agassi himself has often said life is about learning to make the right choices and the fact he has comeback from such a low point to achieve what he has in building a championship career, a healthy and loving family, a successful charter school and productive charity clearly far outweigh the poor decisions he made in ‘97.

“It’s a bit of a shock more than anything else. Obviously, (it is) disappointing, but it takes a lot of guts and courage to come out and say something no one would really know about,” U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez told the media in a conference call today to discuss next month’s Fed Cup final. “I’ve always admired Andre and he was a huge part of inspiring my generation. He did a lot of great thing and continues to do a lot of great things. He’s opening up now, that’s his choice and maybe people can learn from it and not make the same mistakes.”

On the other hand, there will be inevitable speculation: did his drug use stop at meth or did he dabble in other substances? And did the ATP conceal positive tests in other cases? Years ago, Marcelo Rios once suggested if an American superstar like an Agassi ever tested positive “you would never hear about it. They would never let it get out.”

Rios suggested what some players have long suspected: that a player’s earning power and importance to the sport could provide immunity from punishment for drug use.

The reality is while celebrity does not provide immunity from drugs, it can provide immunity from the discovery of drug use.

Aside from former World No. 1 Martina Hingis, who continues to vehemently deny her positive cocaine test at the 2007 Wimbledon,  how many other star players can you name who have tested positive? Was Hingis thrown under the bus as the sacrificial star?

Realistically, the fact that a then 27-year-old multi-millionaire with access to virtually anything money can buy would dabble in drugs or descend into regular drug use is hardly unheard of in the sports or entertainment world.

Tennis has had its share of admitted and alleged drug users. Jennifer Capriati’s mug shot was plastered on magazines and newspapers around the world in an image that became the face of tennis burnout after Capriati was arrested for marijuana possession in a $50-a-night Coral Gables, Florida hotel room registered under her name. A teenage companion who pulled into the hotel parking lot driving Capriati’s car was caught with crack and later told a London tabloid he smoked crack with Capriati.

Grand Slam champions ranging from Yannick Noah to Pat Cash to John McEnroe have admitted recreational drug use during their playing days. In a 2004 interview with The Daily Mail, McEnroe conceded he unknowingly took prescribed steroids for a period of his career.

“For six years I was unaware I was being given a form of steroid of the legal kind they used to give horses …until they decided it was too strong even for horses,” McEnroe told the Daily Mail, adding he was convinced drug use occurred while he was a fixture on the ATP Tour, but does not believe it was common.

“I don’t think it was widespread, but I’m sure it did go on,” McEnroe told the Daily Mail.

Agassi’s admission is the first step in a process that could uncover to what extent it did go on. Agassi has opened up. It’s time for the ATP to do the same.