BWF Player of the Year 2022: Manisha Ramadass earns the female para-badminton player of the year award

Young Indian shuttler Manisha Ramadass has been named the BWF Player of the Year 2022 award for her spectacular performance in the current season in Bangkok on Monday.

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Manisha had won the gold medal in the SU5 category of the World Championships. She won 11 gold and five bronze medals overall in 2022. Meanwhile, other contenders in this category included India's Nithya Sre, Manasi Joshi, Sarina Satomi, Giuliana Poveda, and Pilar Jauregui.

However, paralympic champion Pramod Bhagat and Thomas Cup winner HS Prannoy lost out in the race for the BWF awards. Bhagat, who won his fourth singles gold at the World Championships this year, was named in the BWF Male Para-Badminton Player of the Year category. But the award in the WH2 category went to world champion and reigning Paralympic champion Daiki Kajiwara. Daiki won a total of 10 gold medals and four bronze medals.

Apart from Kajiwara and Bhagat, other nominees for the award were Chieh Leek Hou, Lucas Mazur, Chiu Man Kai, and Choi Jungman. Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen achieved the best player in men's singles. BWF said in a report on its official website that Axelsen won nine titles during the eligibility period from November 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022. He also won the World Championship title for the second time during this period. While Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong won the best pairs award at the BWF Player of the Year 2022.

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Akane Yamaguchi of Japan has got the best women's singles player of the year. She achieved the feat of winning two consecutive world titles within nine months. She also won the title of All England and Japan Open. Other contenders in this class were Aan Se Young and Tai Tzu Ying.

On the other hand, the Most Improved Player of the Year award went to the pair of Fajar Alfiyan and Mohamed Riyan Ardianto. They made eight finals appearances and won four titles in 2022. While Japan's 21-year-old Kodai Naraoka received the Eddy Choong 'Most Promising' player of the year award. Naraoka made it to four finals in 2022 and won the Vietnam Open title.