This man is an excellent tennis player. It's too bad his career was derailed because he made a bad decision. I'm glad he's back. That said, I recall Richard Gasquet was also suspended for illegal substance abuse when he tested positive for cocaine. I read that Rafael Nadal, who played against him when they started playing tennis as children, took Gasquet aside and offered Gasquet any assistance he could provide so Gasquet could get back on track and resume his tennis career.
4
Ummmmm, am we supposed to be sympathetic?? Evans made a dumb choice. As is frequently the case, his choice led to consequences he doesn’t like. I thinks this may have happened once or twice before in the history of humanity.
This guy is the perfect embodiment of 'Expect nothing, no excuses, do something.' The only thing I can't understand is why he didn't find a private court in England to practice on?
5
Our society is awash with drugs and many of the legal ones are the most dangerous, addictive and destructive. A few are arbitrarily declared illegal, mostly for political and economic reasons. The catastrophic War on Drugs has destroyed millions of lives and turned parts of Mexico and Central America into infernos of violence exported from our insatiable consumption that did not exist when I started traveling in this region in the 1970s. Ironically we supply the weapons too. Who cares if a tennis player uses cocaine? If it affects his on the court performance, he is the loser. Otherwise it is meaningless.
7
I'm now a fan. The fact that he took his punishment without rancor or argument (and is apparently most concerned how his transgressions affected those close to him rather than himself) makes him unusual. This, combined with a role of scrappy underdog on the court and his dogged determination to continue despite near universal disapprobation, makes him a very compelling story. I look forward to following his progress
11