Players of the Year to be named Monday

Saina Nehwal, Bao Yixin, and Lee Yong Dae / Yoo Yeon Seong join four World Champions as the BWF names 19 candidates for its 2015 Badminton Players’ Awards.

Photos: Badmintonphoto

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has named the candidates for Player of the Year honours for 2015.  The awards will be given out at the Players’ Reception and Gala Dinner for the Dubai World Superseries Finals on Monday, December 7th.

2014 winners and repeat World Champions Chen Long and Zhao Yunlei are up for the awards again.  Zhao Yunlei’s challengers are fellow repeat World Champion Carolina Marin, World Championship and All England runner-up Saina Nehwal, as well as All England winner and World Championship runner-up Bao Yixin.

Competing to take the Male Player of the Year award from Chen Long are fellow repeat World Champion Zhang Nan and Lee Yong Dae / Yoo Yeon Seong, winners of six Superseries titles this year.

Three female and two male candidates have been named for the Eddy Choong Award for Most Promising Player.  Chen Qingchen and Zheng Siwei, the mixed doubles partners who scored doubles doubles at the World Junior Championships, the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold, and the Brazil Open Grand Prix, are both in the running, along with China Masters winner and Asian Junior Champion He Bingjiao and Saena Kawakami, the 18-year-old winner of two Grand Prix titles this year.

The only 19-year-old nominee is Huang Kaixiang, who won two Grand Prix Gold and two Grand Prix titles in his first year on the senior tour.

If it is difficult to pick a Player of the Year from among both singles and doubles players, or a Most Promising Player from among both male and female candidates, the Para-Badminton Players of the Year is an even harder decision.  All but one of the six candidates won between one and three World Para-Badminton Championship titles.  The three candidates for the Female Para-Badminton Player of the Year award – Rachel Choong, Helle Sofie Sagoy, and Julie Thrane – are in three different categories.

Two nominees for Male Para-Badminton Player of the Year – Cheah Liek Hou and Bartlomiej Mroz – were in the same category but triple World Champion Lee Sam Seop was the only candidate from the Wheelchair division.

Click here to read the complete press release on the BWF Superseries website