ITTF announce Male and Female Para Star nominees

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced the nominees for the Male and Female Para Star which will be announced at the Dubai 2014 ITTF Star Awards in Dubai on 7 January 2015.

The second edition of the ITTF Star Awards will take place at the Armani Hotel, at the base of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which is a fitting location to honour the world's best table tennis players.

The nominees in the running to be crowned a 2014 Table Tennis Star are:

Female Para Table Tennis Star presented by Stag

• Sandra Paovic (CRO) - World number one in Women's Class 6, 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 6 Women's Singles winner;

• Mao Jingdian (CHN)- World number two in Women's Class 8, 2014 Asian Para Games Class 8 Women's Singles & Class 6-8 Women's Teams winner, 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 8 Women's Singles & Class 6-8 Women's Teams winner;

• Melissa Tapper (AUS)- World number six in Women's Class 10, 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 10 Women's Singles bronze medalist.

Male Para Table Tennis Star presented by Tinsue

• Alvaro Valera (ESP)- World number one in Men's Class 6, 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 6 Men's Singles & Class 6-7 Men's Team winner;

• Holger Nikelis (GER)- World number two in Men's Class 1, 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 1 Men's Singles bronze medalist & Class 1 Men's Teams silver medalist;

• Nesim Turan (TUR)- World number three in Men's Class 4, 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 4 Men's Singles winner & Class 5 Men's Teams silver medalist.

Germany’s Volker Ziegler has also been shortlisted for Star Coach, presented by Butterfly, alongside China’s Kong Linghui and Portugal’s Pedro Rufino.

Ziegler took over as head coach of the German Para Table Tennis National Team in 2013 and since then Germany has doubled up the amount of medals from four (comparing from last World Championship 2010 and Paralympics games 2012) to eight medals at this year's Para World Championship.

The nominees for all the awards can be found here.