Australian Open: after a year and a half without playing, Frenchman Jérémy Chardy tastes victory again

Europe 1 with AFP 6:23 p.m., January 17, 2023

After a year and a half without competition, Jérémy Chardy (35) struggled to launch his first round this Tuesday at the Australian Open, but he was able to find the sensations and the path to victory, against Colombian Daniel Galan (1-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4).

"I didn't even know if I could play tennis again, so being able to be here, in the Grand Slam, on the court, playing, training, it's just fun and a bonus. I savor every moment and the result is even the least important", assures the 35-year-old veteran with a big smile.

In July 2021, he advanced to the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament where he was beaten by future gold medalist Alexander Zverev.

Then he lost in the first round of the US Open, and since then, nothing.

The native of Pau, in the south-west of France near the border with Spain, came off the radar and even the ATP rankings, he who had reached the 25th rank in 2013, the year he had played the quarters of final in Melbourne, his best Grand Slam result.

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"Lost a piece of cartilage"

Shortly before his disappearance from the circuit, he explained that he was no longer able to play due to a bad reaction to the Covid vaccine, compulsory at the time to be accepted in tournaments.

He very quickly lost all his strength at the slightest physical exertion, without the doctors being able to do anything about it.

So little by little, he was afraid of not being able to exercise his passion, tennis.

Then, when he started to get better, when he started playing again a little, he injured his knee: "I lost a piece of cartilage", he says.

And here he is again for months of convalescence with mentally "very difficult" periods.

"Overnight, you go from having lots of goals, training to... nothing. Your life changes overnight..." he underlines.

Director of the Challenger de Pau tournament, involved in the development of the UTS circuit imagined by Patrick Mouratoglou, Chardy also became the coach of another French player a few months ago: Ugo Humbert.

"It did me good, it kept me in the competition," he explains.

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"The Unknown"

At the same time, he resumed training with one goal: the Australian Open.

"Having a specific goal, a tournament that I always dreamed of playing when I was little, it helped me to train hard, to push every day," he explains, specifying that sometimes he pushed himself so much that he had to interrupt the sessions because of the pain.

And sure enough, he managed to get fit enough to come to Melbourne where, after all that work and hope, he was suddenly scared to step onto the court.

"I wasn't stressed, I was scared. It was the unknown: I didn't know how I was going to play, how I was going to feel, like I didn't know my game patterns anymore…", he admits.

"I felt like I had never played tennis. I didn't know how to serve, forehand, backhand, I was in the dark… And little by little I started to to feel better, to find benchmarks, and that's it…", he continues.

As a result, to the rediscovered and primordial happiness of "no longer having pain" and of being "physically well", is added all the same that of victory and the rediscovered sensations of a tennis player.

And the possibility of retirement once again becomes a fuzzier feeling.

"For the moment, I play. If I play well, I would like to continue", he assures.

Still, now that he is a coach AND a player, fate could play the ugly trick on him by putting him in front of his colt Humbert, who was playing his first round at the Australian Open against his compatriot Richard Gasquet.

"I really don't want to play him! It would be nice if we found a coach for him", specifies Chardy, promising: "As long as he has no one, I won't let him go".