Evans wins onthelong road back to the top
After nine months of watching daytime TV and doubting whether he would get back to the sport he loves, Dan Evans is ready to move on from “the worst thing I’ve ever done”.
A year ago, Evans was flying high in the world’s top 50 having seemingly matured beyond the youthful indiscretions that previously blighted his career.
But those issues paled into insignificance when Evans was forced to announce he had failed a test for cocaine and was subsequently handed a one-year ban.
Sitting in the modest surroundings of Scotstoun Leisure Centre, where he made his comeback at the Glasgow Challenger yesterday, the 27-yearold refused to go into the circumstances surrounding him taking cocaine, or to say whether he had previously used the drug.
Evans said: “It’s a shocking drug and it’s not just in sport, it’s a life-ruiner.
“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done. It’s a shocking thing to do, it’s let down many people. Luckily I was never in the position where I needed to get help for that drug. But I won’t ever take it again. It’s that simple.
“If you saw the ruins it left behind, just failing a drugs test never mind what that does to people, you’d be pretty confident I won’t take that drug again.
“But then everyone’s got to move on from what I did as well. It’s been a year now since everything happened, so I think it’s a good time to just draw a line.” Evans made a winning return yesterday, with a 6-3 7-6 (8/6) victory over countryman Ed Corrie in the first round of qualifying.
The 27-year-old will take on Ireland’s Sam Barry today for a place in the main draw.
Now unranked, he needed a wild card from the Lawn Tennis Association just to enter qualifying in Glasgow, with the governing body’s support conditional on the former British No. 2 passing a number of physical tests, agreeing to random drug testing and contributing to anti-doping education.
Evans has worked his way up virtually from the bottom before but admits this scenario feels very different, not least because he did not pick up a racket between learning of his failed test last June and when he was allowed to set foot in official training facilities again two months ago.
Whiling away the hours proved difficult, with Evans spending most of the time living with his girlfriend Aleah in Cheltenham.
He said: “It was amazing, I was saying to my girlfriend how long a working day actually is. Daytime TV is not good. I was probably the worst boyfriend there has ever been for nine months.
“It wasn’t easy, there’s some terrible moments in those nine months. I would never want anyone to go through what having a ban is like and it’s my own fault, don’t get me wrong.”
Evans still has time on his side as he tries to plot his way back to where he feels he belongs, but there were many moments when a return to professional tennis seemed too far away to contemplate.
“Nobody can sit there in that position and say ‘I will be back’; if they say that they are lying to your face,” he said.
“I had doubts every day and there will still be doubts until there are two digits next to my name.”