Richard Gasquet is free to resume his tennis career despite being found guilty of a doping offence by the International Tennis Federation.

An independent anti-doping tribunal, convened by the ITF today, had banned the Frenchman for two months and 15 days after he tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, at an ATP event in Miami in March.

The suspension, which started in May, ended on Wednesday.

The ITF said in a statement they accepted Gasquet's plea he had inadvertently consumed cocaine in a nightclub and claimed it would be "unjust and disproportionate" to impose a 12-month ban.

The statement said: "The Tribunal accepted Mr Gasquet's plea of No Significant Fault or Negligence, on the basis that he was able to demonstrate on the balance of probabilities how the cocaine entered his system (through inadvertent contamination in a nightclub the night before his scheduled match), and that, while he was at fault in exposing himself to the risk of such contamination, that fault was not significant.

"It further ruled that, in the exceptional and "probably unique" circumstances of the case, it would be unjust and disproportionate to impose a 12-month sanction on Mr Gasquet.

"Instead it ruled that Mr Gasquet be suspended from participation for a period of two months and 15 days, commencing on 1 May 2009, and thus ending at 08:00 GMT on 15 July 2009."

A relieved Gasquet told TV station France 2: "I am happy, to put it simply, to be going back on court. It's an enormous joy.

"I accept that I have the right to play tennis again, and that justice has been done.

"For two and a half months, it was terrible, an extraordinary suffering."

Gasquet will retains his results, ranking points and prize money from events subsequent to Miami.