Roddick leads local support for Agassi

By Simon Evans

MIAMI (Reuters) - Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick said Andre Agassi remained his hero despite revelations his fellow American took the recreational drug crystal meth in the late 1990s and lied about the reasons for a positive test.

Roddick, the leading U.S. men's player who lost to Roger Federer in this year's Wimbledon final, was one of many compatriots who remained unfazed by former world number one Agassi's admissions in his new autobiography.

"Andre is and always will be my idol. I will judge him on how he has treated me and how he has changed the world for (the) better," Roddick wrote on his Twitter page.

Roddick said Agassi's letter to the ATP, in which the eight times grand slam champion duped the governing body into believing he had failed a drugs test because his drink had been spiked, came at a time when the player was far from his peak.

"To be fair, when Andre wrote the reported letter, he was well outside the top 100 and widely viewed as on the way out," said Roddick.

BRAVE DECISION

United States Fed Cup captain Mary Jo Fernandez said Agassi had been brave to come out with his secrets.

"It takes a lot of guts and courage to come out and say something that nobody would have really known about," Fernandez said.