Dan Evans has been banned from tennis for one year after claiming leftover cocaine in a washbag or the pocket of his trousers contaminated legitimate medicine.

The former British No2 has had his ban backdated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and will be eligible to compete again on 24 April 2018.

The 27-year-old tested positive for cocaine during the Barcelona Open in April this year but the ITF said in a statement it accepted “inadvertent contamination” was to blame for the positive test and that Evans bore “no significant fault or negligence”.

Evans, who reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, admitted to using cocaine when he was not competing four days before the test was taken.

He claimed to have put a small amount of “leftover cocaine” first in his trouser pocket then in his washbag before discarding it the next day. But the ITF accepted the defence of his legal team that residue of the cocaine contaminated approved medication which he stored in the same compartment of his washbag and used during the tournament.

Evans has twice had his funding stripped by the Lawn Tennis Association for attitude and behaviour problems but is fortunate to have been given a relatively lenient sentence by the ITF. It is understood he was always planning on making a comeback regardless of the length of ban meted out but it will give him encouragement that he can climb back up the rankings when he competes again.

Evans, who was world No50 before his positive test, has also had to hand back the £92,205 of prize money won and the ranking points gained between the date of his test and the announcement of the positive finding on 23 June. Martina Hingis was banned for two years in 2007 after testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon, and Richard Gasquet was given a year ban in 2009. But the Frenchman’s ban was lifted by the ITF two and a half months in after they accepted his story that the cocaine had inadvertently entered his system when he kissed a woman in a Miami nightclub.

Andy Murray, an outspoken voice on anti-doping matters, was characteristically forthright with his views when he found out about Evans’s anti-doping violation in the summer, stating his belief that Evans deserved a long ban.

The British No1 said: “I have obviously spent a reasonable amount of time with Dan over the last couple of years. He put himself in a position to do really well for the last few years of his career and he has blown that now. It’s going to be a long road back if he wants to do it. He’s made poor decisions in the past and he made another really bad one there.”