New Delhi: The Indian men's doubles pair of
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has been nominated for the 'Most
Improved Player of the Year' award by the Badminton World Federation (BWF)
after a stellar season during which the duo picked up some memorable wins. The
young combination had a breakthrough season, claiming its maiden Super 500
title at Thailand Open before reaching the finals of French Open Super 750
event this year. The other nominees in the category include Canada's women's
singles player Michelle Li, Korean women's doubles pairing of Kim So Yeong and
Kong Hee Yong and Indonesian mixed doubles combination of Praveen Jordan and
Melati Daeva Oktavianti.
The prestigious awards recognise the
achievements of the elite badminton players and pairs in six categories,
including two in Para badminton. India's para badminton player Pramod Bhagat,
who has bagged 11 gold, three silver and four bronze medals this year, was
nominated in the 'Male Para Badminton Player of the Year' award. Olympic
silver-medallist P V Sindhu, however, didn't find a place in the list of
nominees for 'Female Player of the Year' as she didn't win any title barring
the world championship gold this year.
World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese
Taipei, who has won three titles on BWF World Tour, is in line for the award
after being nominated. Among others, China's mixed doubles player Huang Ya
Qiong (World Championships 2019; six titles), Japanese doubles pair of Yuki
Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota (silver at World Championships; four titles) and
Chinese doubles pair of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan (Five titles, including
Badminton Asia Championships) were also nominated for the 'Female Player of the
Year' award.
In the Male Player of the Year awards, two-time world champion and world no 1 Kento Momota of Japan, who has claimed 10 titles this year, was nominated alongside the Indonesian men's doubles pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, who won eight titles.
Chinese mixed doubles player Zheng Si
Wei (BWF World Championships 2018; six titles overall) and Indonesia's Mohammad
Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan were the other nominees in the Male Player of the
year awards. The top performers of the year will be presented with the awards
at the opening ceremony and gala dinner of the second edition of the BWF World
Tour Finals to be held from December 11 to 15.
timesnownews
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