Tennis: Changes afoot in women's WTA ranking system

The WTA Tour is altering its current ranking system to add more weight to results from Grand Slam and Tier I tournaments in determining the top women's tennis players for next season.

The system has been much criticised after Lindsay Davenport finished ranked No 1 despite failing to win a grand slam this year, while Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams captured two each.

The women's professional tennis tour will also add four tournaments and more than $US1 million ($2.42 million) in prizemoney next season.