For women, there will now be eight, compared to the previous seven, tournaments on the wheelchair tennis tour, with tournaments for quad players upped from six to seven.

The nine used on the men's tour will remain the same.

The wheelchair tennis tour is one of the most professional in Paralympic sport, benefiting from the structure and organisation of the ITF.

It consists of a total of 170 tournaments in over 40 countries, with prize money this year standing at more than $1 million (£616,000/€761,000).

Each of the grand slam events on the able bodied tennis tour – the Australian, French and United States Opens, as well as Wimbledon – have a wheelchair tennis tournament (Annick Sevenans of Belgium pictured above competing at Wimbledon this year).

There are also four major wheelchair tennis specific tournaments: the Australian; British; US; and Japan Opens, which comprise the Super Series.

In addition, the calendar features Masters singles and doubles tournaments for top ranked players.

At the end of each year, during the French Open, the number one ranked men and women are crowned world champions at the ITF World Champions dinner.

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