Yanina Wickmayer suspended; Agassi talks to ’60 Minutes’

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Her story at the U.S. Open was heartbreaking and heart-warming. Young Yanina Wickmayer and her widowed father packed up their lives in Belgium and moved to the U.S. after Wickmayer’s mother died of cancer. From nowhere (or Belgium), she arrived in the U.S. and made it to the semifinals. She told her story and we were charmed.

That story takes quite a different turn with Thursday’s announcement that she and fellow Belgian Xavier Malisse will be serving suspensions for violations of doping rules. [Correction: An earlier version of this post said Wickmayer was suspended for doping. She was suspended for failing to report her whereabouts to doping officials.]

We were also enthralled listening to Andre Agassi. He spoke eloquently about his tennis career. He was honest about his struggles with his strict father and his feelings of having been forced to play the game and how, sometimes, his rebellion caused him to behave badly when he was younger. In an hourlong chat at the U.S. Open, a clearly happy and satisfied Agassi is now a great spokesman both for tennis and education. He’s an athlete who has put his money into things more important mansions or dozens of cars. He runs an education academy that offers hope for at-risk students.

And then excerpts came out from Agassi’s new autobiography in which he confessed to failing a doping test back in 1997 for crystal meth. More disappointing than the drug use (which frankly wasn’t so shocking) was that Agassi said he lied to ATP Tour officials about the failed test. It came at a time when Agassi’s rankings plummeted.

The confession wasn’t necessary. Yet it feels real. Agassi will appear Sunday on the CBS’ ‘60 Minutes,’ where he gets emotional when reacting to some criticism from Martina Navratilova.

Is it right that Agassi got away with something? Of course not, But Agassi seems genuinely tortured about the incident and is now doing something so very right with his academy. He gets the benefit of the doubt with me. It’s just a gut feeling. But he’s now a great guy. He was once a troubled kid but there was a good person inside. ’60 Minutes’ might be worth watching Sunday.

-- Diane Pucin