Dan Evans faces one-year ban after admitting to cocaine use

Dan Evans faces one-year ban after admitting to cocaine use

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British tennis player Dan Evans faces a one-year ban after the ITF accepted that ‘inadvertent contamination’ was responsible for him being tested positive at the Barcelona Open last April. His prompt admission and cocaine not being a performance-enhancing drug reduced his potential 4-year ban to 1.

Evans was banned for a year from tennis by the International Tennis Federation on Tuesday after the 27-year-old explained how he accidentally mixed cocaine with his medication in a washbag.

Evans explained to the inquiry panel that he had used a small amount of cocaine when he was not competing for days before the test. He said that the "leftover" cocaine had accidentally mixed with permitted medication in the "same pocket of his washbag".

He admitted to taking those tablets daily from 20th April 2017 to 24th April 2017, the date on which he provided his sample. Evans provided the positive sample at the Barcelona Open on 24 April, which back-dated his suspension to begin from that date meaning that he can return to action from 24 April 2018.

The ITF governing body explained that Evans’ ban isn’t that severe because cocaine is not a performance enhancing drug and it was taken out of competition, which saved Evans a potential four-year ban. Evans also "promptly admitted his violation" accepting his account of how the cocaine got into his system, adding that he bore "no significant fault or negligence for the violation" as per the ITF statement.

Evans’ expert Dr Pascal Kintz successfully proved that the amount ingested by the player was no more than 1‐3 mg, a quantity "inconsistent with knowing ingestion and consistent instead with inadvertent contamination".

Consequently, Evans had to forfeit 103,890 euros (£92,205) of prize money won and the ranking points that he gained between the date of his test and the announcement of the positive finding on 23 June. The Briton had reached a career-high ranking of 41 last March and his inaction has dragged him down to 108 now. He will see a further dip before he returns to competition in April.

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