Li Na of China poses with The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after defeating Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in their women's singles final match at the Australian Open 2014 tennis tournament in Melbourne in this Jan 25, 2014 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

The list of 50 nominees for 10 different categories, which also include the Best Team of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year and Best Coach of Year, was announced at the Beijing headquarters of Price Waterhouse Coopers, which audits the voting process.

PWC received 396 valid votes from a 408-member jury including journalists, scholars, sports officials and public representatives in November and selected five candidates for each category.

The eventual winners will be announced at an awards ceremony upon the decision made by 150 final judges at the MasterCard Center on Feb 1.