Satwik-Chirag draw curtain on 2022 season; set to skip Australian Open

The Indian men's doubles badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have drawn curtains on a highly successful 2022 season. The world number 8 pair will skip the final World Tour event - the 2022 Australia Open Super 300.

The 25-year-old Chirag Shetty in a social media post revealed that the pair will be in action directly in January next year at the 2023 Malaysia Open.

"And the European leg of the World Tour comes to an end. It's been a good couple of weeks where we played some quality matches against formidable pairs, the highlight being the Title at the French Open," Shetty wrote.

"Now it's time to head back home and recharge for the next set of challenges that start in January with the Malaysia Open. Thanks for all the support these past few weeks. Much appreciated," the shuttler added.

This means that Satwik-Chirag will skip the 2022 Australia Open, which in turn would mean the pair failing to qualify for the 2022 World Tour Finals. But, this seems to be a very good tactical decision as even winning the title at Australia might not have been enough for them to qualify for the Word Tour Finals with their current standing of 12 in the Race to Guangzhou rankings.

Though Satwik-Chirag will have to give the prestigious year ender tournament a miss, the 2022 season has been nothing short of extraordinary for them.

In January earlier this year, the pair became the first ever Indian men's doubles pair to play in the 2021 World Tour Finals - a tournament they were forced to withdraw from due to an injury after just one match.

Satwik-Chirag came back strongly post that winning the India Open Super 300 at home. They then played a vital role in India's historic Thomas Cup campaign, before winning the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham and bagging their first-ever Super 750 title at the French Open last month.