Indonesia’s world number one pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo have been named 2017 Players of the Year in the men’s category by the Badminton World Federation.

Legendary shuttler Susi Susanti tipped her hat to the juniors.

“Marcus and Kevin really deserve the award after winning a host of Super Series titles so far,” Susi, development head of the Indonesian Badminton Federation (PBSI), told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Within two years of their pairing, Marcus and Kevin have collected a total of nine Super
Series titles.

The men’s doubles pair won six Super Series titles this year, namely the Hong Kong Open, China Open, Japan Open, Malaysia Open, India Open and All England. Last year, the duo, affectionately nicknamed “Minions” by their fans, snatched the China Open, Australia Open and India Open titles.

The awards recognized the year’s most outstanding players and were held on the eve of the Dubai World Super Series Finals tournament, which kicks off on Wednesday.

“It’s not often that doubles players get the attention ahead of singles, so it was unexpected,” said Kevin as quoted by bwfworldsuperseries.com. “We’ve had a good year, and we will take this as motivation to get better.”

In the women’s category, Cina’s Chen Qingchen walked away with the Player of the Year honor. Meanwhile, the Eddy Choong Most Promising Player of the Year went to China’s Chen Yufei; Most Improved Player of the Year was given to Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota and Para Badminton Male and Female Players of the Year were awarded to South Korea’s Kim Jungjun and Thailand’s Amnouy Wetwithan, respectively.

Qingchen, the world champion in women’s doubles and winner of five Super Series titles, said: “It was a big surprise — I thought Tai Tzu Ying would get it. It is a big honor and I’m delighted. It’s an award all players want to win. At the beginning of 2017, I never thought I would do so well and I will try to maintain the
momentum.”

At the Dubai Finals tournament, Indonesia will have Marcus and Kevin playing in the men’s doubles, as well as Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, and Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto competing in the
mixed doubles.

Marcus and Kevin were drawn in Group A with opponents such as Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen (China), Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding (Denmark) and Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda (Japan).

Meanwhile, Praveen and Debby are in Group A along with Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen (China), Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet (Hong Kong), as well as Kenta Kazuno and Ayane Kurihara (Japan). Tontowi and Liliyana are in Group B with competitors including Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping (China), Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing (Malaysia), and Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock (England).

Susi said the three Indonesian pairs have a chance to bring home the Dubai titles.

The BWF World Super Series is a circuit of 12 tournaments attracting the top 32 world-ranked players in singles (men’s and women’s) and doubles (men’s, women’s and mixed) matches. The 12 legs of the series (eight in Asia, three in Europe and one in Oceania) lead to a finals for the best of the best. The top eight in each discipline qualify to compete in the season finale — the Dubai World Super Series Finals.

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