IT has been a frustrating period for the national squash players who are still waiting for the green light to return to the courts.
But for national players Aifa Azman and Rachel Arnold, they have received a little boost as both are on the nomination list for the Professional Squash Association (PSA) awards.
The 18-year-old Aifa has been shortlisted for the PSA Young Female Player of the Year (2019-20) and the PSA Challenger Tour Female Player of the Year awards.
The Kedah-born earned the recognition on top of her exploits of winning three tournaments (North Coast Open, Melbourne Open and Chongqing International Classic).
It was a memorable debut senior season for the World No 58, who had also reached the second round of the Women's World Championships by beating Hong Kong's World No 29 Joey Chan.
Rachel, meanwhile, was nominated for the PSA Challenger Tour Female Player of the Year award.
The 24-year-old had a breakout season last year when she bagged the Malaysian Open — her biggest career win to date and followed that up by winning the SRFI Indian Tour title in Chennai.
"I was not expecting anything," admitted Aifa. "I only found out when PSA tagged me on Twitter and Instagram.
"It is an honour to be nominated as there are many good young players on the tour.
"However, these nominations came by merit as I had worked hard to win those tournaments, especially the North Coast meet which had earned me a ticket to the World Championships.
"It feels good to be nominated for two awards. It will offer me the motivation to stay positive until we are allowed to train once again."
For the Challenger Tour award, Aifa and Rachel are up against Canada's World No. 33 Danielle Letourneau, Egypt's World No 63 Jana Shiha and American World No 30 Sabrina Sobhy.
For the Young Player award, Aifa faces tough challenges from Egyptian trio — Nouran Gohar (World No 2), Hania El Hammamy (7) and Rowan Elaraby (16) as well as Belgium's World No 19 Tinne Gilis.
The winners will be announced on June 15.