Srikanth Kidambi, PV Sindhu and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy nominated for BWF awards

Indian shuttlers will have a strong presence in the annual awards presented by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) with three players from the country finding themselves in the nominations list that was announced on Wednesday. Singles superstars, Srikanth Kidambi and PV Sindhu are in contention for the ‘Player of the Year 2017’ awards while the 17-year-old doubles sensation, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be vying for the ‘Most Promising Player of the Year’ award.

The prestigious awards recognize achievements of the shuttlers in three categories: Male Player of the Year, Female Player of the Year and Most Promising Player of the Year (Eddy Choong Award). There is also a fourth award given to the Most Improved Player of the year for which there is no nomination.

The recipient will be directly chosen by the BWF Awards Commission. Last year, Sindhu was conferred this award following her silver medal at the Rio Olympic and her maiden Superseries title win at the China Open, among other accomplishments.

This year, the 22-year-old, who won two Superseries titles and grabbed the silver medal at the World Championships, will be contending for the Female Player of the Year with the likes of the World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, Japanese ace Akane Yamaguchi, apart from three others. Srikanth Kidambi, who has won a mind-boggling four Superseries titles, will have strong competition from the world champion Viktor Axelsen, the numero uno men’s doubles pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and the top-ranked mixed doubles player, Zheng Siwei.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s phenomenal talent has already taken him to the top 30 in the men’s doubles world rankings after a scintillating debut season in the Superseries circuit where he and Chirag Shetty made it to two quarter-finals. Chinese rising star, Chen Yufei, who has already broken into the top 10, is in the same category as Rankireddy.

The awards will be presented in a gala ceremony ahead of the season-ending World Superseries Finals in Dubai on Monday night.

Here’s the complete list of the nominees in each category:

Male Player of the Year

Zheng Siwei (China)

Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)

Srikanth Kidambi (India)

Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)

Female Player of the Year

Chen Qingchen (China)

Huang Yaqiong (China)

Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei)

PV Sindhu (India)

Akane Yamaguchi (Japan)

Lee So Hee (Korea)

Most Promising Player of the Year

Chen Yufei (China)

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (India)

Apriyani Rahayu (Indonesia)

Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Indonesia)

Lee Zii Jia (Malaysia)