Chinese world No 1 pairs among nominees for badminton players of the year

China's world No 1 mixed doubles pair Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong as well as world No 1 women's doubles pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan were listed as nominees for the Badminton World Federation's Player of the Year Awards on Thursday.

Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong returned as nominees for Male Player of the Year and Female Player of the Year respectively for the second year in a row, following their steady performance in 2019 with six titles overall including at the BWF World Championships.

Huang were joined by teammates Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, who recently retained the top world ranking and won five titles over the course of the year.

Indonesian men's doubles pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo are in line to claim a rare hat-trick of Male Player of the Year awards, having previously won in 2017 and 2018. They were nominated alongside countrymen Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan, world No 1 men's singles Kento Momota of Japan and Zheng.

Apart from the three Chinese female shutters, other nominees for the Female Player of the Year award are the same as 2018: Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota and Tai Tzu Ying.

China's Qu Zimo and Liu Yutong were nominated as Male and Female Para Badminton Players of the Year, respectively.

The winners will be announced at the opening ceremony and gala dinner of the upcoming BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, China.