Evans escapes with one-year ban for cocaine
Briton could return by April after co-operating I am determined to get back to top level, he says
Dan Evans could be back on the full men’s tour as soon as next summer, after the International Tennis Federation let him off with a relatively lenient one-year ban for his cocaine use in April.
When the Briton revealed that he had tested positive, a lengthier sentence was widely predicted. “It’s going to be a pretty long, long period, I’d imagine,” said Andy Murray, perhaps thinking back to the two years Martina Hingis spent off the tour after her own cocaine scandal in 2007. But then the ITF may have been feeling a little gunshy after Maria Sharapova last year became the sixth player in a row to win a reduction in an anti-doping sentence, via her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
In Evans’ case, the small print reveals that the two parties cut a deal. The ITF accepted his testimony – according to which he took “a small amount of cocaine” out of competition on April 20, and then put the “leftover cocaine … in a pocket of his washbag”, where it contaminated some permitted medication that he was taking.
According to an expert in the field, the precise nature of Evans’ sample revealed he ingested a tiny amount of the drug – between one and three milligrams – on April 24, the day he beat Thiago Monteiro in Barcelona to claim the first claycourt win of his career at ATP level.
In return for receiving a shorter ban than had been expected, Evans waived his right to appeal the verdict. Unusually, no independent tribunal was convened.
In a statement, Evans said: “I want to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this difficult period. I am determined to return to the sport I love and compete at the level I know I can in the not too distant future.”
He forfeits the £91,400 and the 95 rankings points that he won in the five tournaments he played from Barcelona to Queen’s. The latter event was briefly overshadowed by his unexpected press conference in west London on June 23, where he revealed the existence of his positive test, apologised for his conduct and admitted that “I have let a lot of people down”.
Yet the worst-case predictions made by some former players in June – such as Andrew Castle and John Lloyd, who both suggested Evans had “thrown his career away” – now seem unlikely to be born out. A two-year ban might have been challenging, but this sentence, backdated to the day of the positive test, will allow him to return to action from April 24, 2018. He will still be only 27.
Even working his way up the rankings again – for he will start at the rock-bottom of $15,000 Futures events, with little prospect of being offered any wild cards – is hardly unfamiliar to Evans. He stood at No772 in the world as recently as April 2015, yet had climbed to No55 by the date of his confession.
Meanwhile, British No1 Johanna Konta has announced that she is pulling out of next week’s Hong Kong Open with a foot injury. The withdrawal is understood to be precautionary, and comes after a disappointing run of form that has seen Konta lose her last five matches, including a demoralising 6-1, 6-2 defeat by Monica Niculescu in Beijing on Sunday.
Konta is still in a strong position to earn qualification for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals in Singapore, which start on Oct 22, although it is possible that she will have to win a couple of matches in Moscow next week to secure her place among the eight leading players of the season, depending on other results.