Dan Evans handed one-year ban from tennis after testing positive for cocaine

The ban is backdated meaning Evans will be eligible to play again on April 24 2018

Evans has been handed a one-year ban (Getty)

Dan Evans has been handed a one-year ban after testing positive for cocaine, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Evans, the former British number two who reached the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open, failed the test at the Barcelona Open in April and announced the news at a hastily-arranged press conference in June.

The ban has been backdated, which means that Evans will be eligible to play again on April 24 next year.

The ITF said in a statement that it accepted “inadvertent contamination” was to blame for the positive test, after Evans told a panel that he had used the drug when not competing, four days before his test.

He then put a small amount of “leftover cocaine” in his washbag, which also contained an approved medication he used during the Barcelona Open.

The ITF accepted his defense that his fingers or approved medication were then contaminated by the cocaine residue.

The former British number two tested positive for cocaine (Getty)

“A decision has been issued under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme that Daniel Evans has committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme. It was agreed that a period of one year's ineligibility should be imposed, commencing on 24 April 2017,” their statement, published on Tuesday afternoon, read.

“On 16 June 2017, Mr. Evans was charged with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme and was Provisionally Suspended with effect from 26 June 2017. Mr. Evans promptly admitted his violation. The ITF accepted Mr. Evans’ account of how the cocaine got into his system and that he bears No Significant Fault or Negligence for the violation.”

Evans also forfeits £91k prize money as well as the ranking points he earned in events played from late-April through to June of this year.