The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has confirmed that British tennis player Daniel Evans (pictured) returned an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for cocaine after giving a sample on 24 April at the Barcelona Open. ‘In accordance with Article 2.1 of the TADP, Mr Evans was charged on 16 June with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation’, read an ITF statement issued today. ‘As positive tests for Non-Specified Substances carry a mandatory Provisional Suspension, Mr Evans will be provisionally suspended with effect from 26 June’.

Evans read a statement at a hastily convened press conference this afternoon in London. “It’s really important you know this was taken out of competition and the context was completely unrelated to tennis”, Evans told assembled journalists, reported the BBC.

Cocaine is a non-specified stimulant under section S6.a of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List. Article 10.2.1 of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) states that a sanction for a first offence shall be four years, ‘unless the participant establishes that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional’.

Article 10.2.3 of the TADP clarifies that Article 10.2 is intended to punish ‘intentional’ cheats. It states that an ADRV ‘shall not be considered “intentional” if the Substance is not a Specified Substance and the Player can establish that it was Used Out-of-Competition in a context unrelated to sport performance’. That is why Evans stressed that the cocaine was taken out of competition in a context unrelated to tennis.

However, Evans faces the problem that he tested positive in competition for a non-specified stimulant. Whilst it may be true that the cocaine entered his system in a context unrelated to tennis, he competed at the Barcelona Open with the stimulant in his system. Therefore Evans may not be able to argue that he took the substance ‘out of competition in a context unrelated to sport performance’, as the TADP rules specify. Prosecutors for the ITF are likely to argue that his ‘sport performance’ at the Barcelona Open benefitted from the stimulant in his system.

On 23 November 2015, the ITF sanctioned Jose-Manuel Roman Gomez with a four-year ban after he tested positive for cocaine on 15 June, at an in-competition test at an F17 Futures Event. However Gomez did not provide any form of defence and so was issued with the maximum possible ban.

In 2009, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected an appeal by the ITF and WADA against an independent doping tribunal decision to issue a two and-a-half month ban to Richard Gasquet. The CAS said that ‘it was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Gasquet’s claim of inadvertent contamination was correct’. Gasquet had successfully argued that a 28 March 2009 AAF for cocaine was caused by kissing a woman who had consumed the stimulant.