Cocaine shame of bad boy who helped make UK tennis history
The UK number three, ranked 50th in the world, will miss Wimbledon next month and could be excluded from the sport for up to four years.
Reading a statement at a hotel close to the Queen’s Club in West Kensington, London, yesterday, the 27-year-old apologised to his family and fans, admitting he had made a ‘mistake’.
He said: ‘This is a very difficult day for me and I wanted to come here in person and tell you face to face I was notified a few days ago that I failed a drugs test in April, where I tested positive for cocaine.
‘It is really important that you know this was taken out of competition and the context completely unrelated to tennis. I made a mistake and I must face up to it. I do not condone for one second to anyone that this was acceptable behaviour.
‘I have let a lot of people down, my family, my coach, my team, sponsors, British tennis and my fans. I can only deeply apologise from the bottom of my heart. It is a sad and humbling experience.’
The International Tennis Federation has provisionally suspended Evans, ‘pending determination of the case’.
The four-year ban usually given for doping offences could be reduced to two years if he can prove the context of the drugtaking was not related to tennis.
This is not the first time Evans, once dubbed ‘the bad boy of British tennis’, has landed himself in trouble. In 2006 he was removed from Wimbledon’s junior tournament for being, in his own words, ‘stupid on court’.
Two years later the Lawn Tennis Association withdrew its funding for Evans for four months after he was caught at a nightclub until after 3am with doubles partner Daniel Smethurst – the night before a match.
The LTA, British tennis’s governing body, criticised his attitude and cut his funding again in 2010 and 2012. Evans admit- ted in 2013: ‘I don’t train hard enough and I don’t work hard enough day in day out. I’m obviously pretty bad at my job.’
Despite setbacks, he won the Davis Cup with Britain’s team, in 2015 – the nation’s first victory in the tournament for 79 years. The players were later named BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year. Evans had a successful 2016 season, reaching the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open. After he progressed to the fourth round of the Australian Open this year, Evans’s mother Bernadette said: ‘I’ve told him in the past he’s in danger of coming over as cocky but he told me you have to be confident in your ability as a sportsman.’
Evans, pictured with long-term girlfriend Georgina on Thursday, lives with his parents in Hall Green, Birmingham.
An LTA spokesman said it would help Evans ‘ address the issues he now faces’, but added: ‘We absolutely condemn any form of drug-taking and will support the process which needs to take place.’
‘I’ve let a lot of people down’