Being held at the Nieuwe Sloot Tennis Centre in Alphen, the tournament is the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) flagship wheelchair tennis event, often referred to as the Davis Cup and Fed Cup of the sport.

A total of 52 teams from 31 countries will participate in this year's Cup with the teams set to compete in five events across the six-day tournament, from tomorrow to June 1.

France's men's team, the Netherlands' women's team, the United States' quad team and Great Britain's junior team will all be hoping to defend the titles they picked up 12 months ago in the 2013 edition.

In addition, 12 teams from the men's Group II will be battling for a spot in the top-tiered World Group for next year's event.

This year's World Team Cup is the 30th edition of the tournament since its inauguration in California in 1985, where just six men's teams competed.

Women were introduced to the tournament the following year, while quads and juniors joined in 1998 and 2000 respectively.

Regional qualifying was introduced by the ITF for the men and women in 2012 to determine the teams that would join those who directly qualify and given wildcards.

Qualifying events this year were held in Kenya, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

The direct qualifiers are determined by the top 18 teams from the previous tournament for men, the top eight teams for women, the top six for quads and the top four for juniors.

The remaining places, of which there are six in the men's World Group II and four in the women's World Group, gain entry through the aforementioned regional qualifiers.

Stephanie Houdet will be hoping to lead top seeds France to a successful defence of its men's World Group title at the World Team Cup in the Netherlands ©Getty Images



Seeds for each event are based on the combined rankings of the top two singles players from each nation, using the ITF ranking on May 19.

France is top seed for the men's World Group this year, while the Netherlands is top seed for the women's World Group and United States is top seed for the quad event.

The Netherlands is also top seed for the junior event.

The men's competition sees eight of the top 10 singles players in the world competing, including the likes of France's Stephanie Houdet, Britain's Gordon Reid and the Netherlands' Maikel Scheffers.

Japan's world number one Kamjiji Yui will be hoping to lead her nation to glory in the women's event but will face stiff opposition from the likes of Dutch superstar Aniek van Koot and German Sabine Ellerbrock.

American powerhouse David Wagner will lead the charge in the quad competition with Andy Lapthorne and Jamie Burdekin from the British camp likely to be his biggest competition.

Following this tournament, the top athletes will travel to Paris to compete at Roland Garros, coinciding with the second week of the able-bodied French Open.

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