This season got off to an inauspicious start for Chardy as he fell in the first round of the Australian Open. It was at the Masters 1000 tournaments in the U.S., though, where signs of a turnaround came into shape. At Indian Wells, the Frenchman advanced to the round of 16, defeating Top 25 players Fabio Fognini and Adrian Mannarino along the way. He followed that up with another fourth-round finish in Miami, where he beat another compatriot Richard Gasquet and the world No. 4, Grigor Dimitrov.
As the tour turned to clay, Chardy’s best result was a semifinal appearance in Turkey. At the French Open, he upset No. 20 seed Tomas Berdych in five sets in the first round, then lost 9-7 in the fifth set to Pierre-Hugues Herbert in an all-French affair.
While the second week of the French Open was transpiring, Chardy turned his attention to the grass courts in Surbiton, England. After winning his first two matches in straight sets, he had to fight off a match point against Dennis Kudla in the quarterfinals. Advancing to the final, he defeated the young Australian Alex de Minaur in three sets for his first tournament triumph since capturing the Noumea Challenger in 2012.
In 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, Chardy stretched his win streak to nine matches before losing the final to Gasquet. It was a monumental run for the 31-year-old, his first championship appearance at the ATP World Tour level since that long-ago run in Stuttgart.
Following that up with a semifinal run in Queen’s, where he lost to Novak Djokovic in a tight two-setter, Chardy is where many thought he should have been for the bulk of his career—back in the Top 50. He isn’t playing this week at the tournaments in Eastbourne, England, or Antayla, Turkey, but he’s put in plenty of prep work for Wimbledon, where he’ll be considered a threat to many a seeded player. He’s reached the round of 16 there in his long career and won the boys’ title back in 2005.
Back then, Chardy's future prospects as a professional looked as promising as anyone in his age range, if not more so. While that path might not have gone as planned, the past few weeks have shown that Chardy is eager to make up for lost time.