Li Na running for China's 4th Laureus award

Australian Open tennis champion Li Na of China waves to the crowd as she stands next to the women's singles trophy during an official ceremony on Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park, Jan 19, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

The sportsman's award will be decided among Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Lewis Hamilton, Rory Mcilroy of Britain, Renaud Lavillenie of France, Marc Marquez of Spain and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.

Djokovic, winner of Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award in 2012, won the Wimbledon for the second time, defeating Roger Federer of Switzerland in the final in five sets in 2014. It was his seventh career Grand Slam title and his victory meant he replaced Rafael Nadal of Spain as world No 1.

Marc, who was awarded the Laureus Breakthrough Award last year, won his second straight World MotoGP title, at the age of 21 in 2014. He opened the year with 10 straight Grand Prix wins, then added three more to reach a season total of 13, beating the record of Australian Mick Doohan, who won 12 in 1997.

Cristiano, winner of the Ballon d'Or as World Player of the Year, was also named UEFA Player of the Year at the end of last season after scoring a record 17 goals for Real Madrid as they won the Champions League for the 10th time.

Lewis won his second Formula One World Championships with 11 Grand Prix victories in 2014 while his countryman Rory became the No 1 golfer in the world with victories in two Major Championships in 2014 - the Open and the USPGA.

Renaud jumped 6.16 meters in Donetsk in 2014 to break Ukrainian Sergey Bubka's pole vault world record of 6.15 meters, which had stood for almost 21 years. With 21 victories out of 22 competitions during the year, he was named IAAF men's athlete of year.

The Laureus World Sports Awards is the premier honors event on the international sporting calendar. The winners are selected by the votes of the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 50 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time including Chinese table tennis legend Deng Yaping, Chinese gymnast Li Xiaopeng and Yang Yang.