Wikipedia:WikiProject Tennis/Article guidelines

Welcome to the Article Guidelines section of the Tennis WikiProject. Please read this page before creating or editing tennis articles. When in doubt, ask your questions on the WikiProject Tennis Talk page.

Article types and recommended practices
While there are many articles within the scope of this WikiProject, they fall into a relatively small number of classes:


 * Tournament articles
 * e.g. Australian Open, Brisbane International. These are listed at List of tennis tournaments and in Category:Tennis tournaments.
 * When naming the new tournament page try to avoid the indication of sponsorship in the title and focus on the commonly accepted/known name of the tournament.


 * Player articles
 * e.g. Bill Tilden, Steffi Graf, Roger Federer, Martina Navratilova. These are collected in Category:Tennis players.
 * Use common English spelling as found on the ITF website, the governing body for all tennis. Also check (especially for pre-Open Era players) the name most commonly found in reliable English sources: press releases, grand slam websites, other tournament sites, books, etc.
 * Use bolding on the player's name only once: on its first appearance in the introduction. Do not apply bolding to any world rankings (even if it's world number one), opponent's name, scores, etc.
 * Update world rankings beginning from Mondays, and only when the new weekly ATP and WTA rankings are published (do not pre-calculate them).
 * Use WP:MOSBIO


 * Player career statistics articles
 * e.g. Chris Evert career statistics, Ken Rosewall career statistics, Pete Sampras career statistics
 * Created when a player's main article gets too large, per wikipedia standards.




 * e.g. 2011 Novak Djokovic tennis season, 2010 Rafael Nadal tennis season, 2013 Serena Williams tennis season
 * Can only be created for singles players who have won at least one Grand Slam tournament singles title;
 * Onward from the year of their first title;
 * Played at least 25 matches in the season;
 * Reached a top-5 ranking during any year(s) without a Grand Slam tournament title.


 * Coach articles
 * e.g. Richard Williams, Category:Tennis coaches, Category:Australian tennis coaches


 * Single-year tournament articles
 * e.g. 2008 Wimbledon Championships or 1974 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships. See also the Grand Slam Project.
 * When updating entry list and seeds, do not rely on gossip, Facebook accounts, fan pages of players, or news editor speculations. Generally wait for the official announcements.
 * Do not create these articles months in advance, they may get deleted per WP:CRYSTAL. Wait until there are announcements worth including in the article, for example the start of qualification play.


 * Draw articles
 * e.g. 2008 US Open – Men's Singles, 2007 Brasil Open – Singles.
 * Only update these pages when the match is finished. When doing so use bolding on the won set gamescore and the winner's name. For tie-break rules see below.
 * Do not create standalone articles for the qualifying rounds of smaller tournaments. Add them below the main draw in the Draw article.


 * Davis/Fed Cup articles
 * e.g. Yugoslavia Davis Cup team, 2008 Fed Cup. These are similar to single-year tournament articles.


 * Tennis by year articles
 * e.g. 2008 in tennis, 1931 in tennis
 * These articles should give a concise overview of the year in tennis, without going in too much intricate detail. The details can be kept in the articles about players and tournaments.


 * (National) tennis organizations
 * e.g. Association of Tennis Professionals, International Tennis Federation, South African Tennis Association, Deutscher Tennis Bund

This list may not be exhaustive, so feel free to add to it. It's well within the scope of this WikiProject to produce guidelines and best practices for each of these article classes.

Please read WP:NOT and more specifically WP:NOTNEWSPAPER and WP:NOTSTATSBOOK. We are not supposed to add everything found in routine news coverage about the players, that would lead to articles becoming overdetailed and also avoid excessive listings of statistics.

Notability
Before creating a new article please check its notability.

Player
Significant coverage is likely to exist for a tennis player if he/she: Significant coverage of junior players usually happens if they have won at least a junior Grand Slam tournament title, have been in the top 3 of the junior ITF world rankings or can be shown to meet the wider requirements of WP:GNG.
 * 1) Is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, either in the contributor or player category
 * 2) Has competed in one of the international team competitions: Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup, Hopman Cup or World Team Cup.
 * 3) Has competed in the main draw in one of these higher level professional tournaments:
 * 4) *Grand Slam tournaments.
 * 5) *Men: ATP Tour tournaments (the ATP Finals, ATP Masters 1000, ATP 500, or ATP 250 events).
 * 6) *Women: WTA Tour tournaments (the WTA Finals, WTA 1000, the WTA 500, or WTA 250 events).
 * 7) Has won at least one title in any of the ATP Men's Challenger tournaments (Challenger 50, Challenger 75, Challenger 100, Challenger 125, or Challenger 175 events).
 * 8) Has won at least one title in the WTA Challenger level tournaments, or in any of ITF W50, W75, or W100 tournaments from 2023 onward ($50,000+ between 2008 and 2022, $25,000+ between 1978 and 2007), or any WTA 125K tournament. The threshold is based on the lowest payout for men's Challenger tournaments in the same year to preserve relatively equal notability.
 * 9) Holds a tennis record recognized by the International Tennis Federation, ATP or WTA.

This guideline applies equally to singles and doubles players.

Coach
Since these are rare articles; the most common case is when a player chooses coaching after retirement. In all other cases determine the coach's background to see if he/she is notable. It is important as it could easily happen that a child player is coached by a non-professional or non-tennis-affiliated relative and cotton to him during his career (see Toni Nadal). It is extremely likely that significant coverage occurs for coaches when: These also ensure that the notability of one-hit wonders' coaches isn't automatically granted with his/her coachee's success. (See Roberto Carretero for example) This guideline applies equally to singles and doubles players. Junior players' coaches are to be omitted otherwise it has to be shown to meet the wider requirements of WP:GNG.
 * 1) The player has reached the final of or won one of the professional Grand Slam tournaments.
 * 2) The player has entered the ATP or WTA rankings top-10 for at least one week.
 * 3) The player was member of a champion team competing in a Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Hopman Cup (reserve players and team captains do not count).
 * 4) The player has won an ATP Masters 1000 or WTA Premier event and has reached at least one other final in Masters 1000 or WTA Premier.

Tournament

 * Men: Any men's tournament is notable if it is part of the ATP Tour (including qualifications) or the ATP Challenger Tour (excluding qualifications). Men's ITF tournaments are not considered notable unless they meet general wp:GNG guidelines. The Futures and all lower ranked tournaments are usually not notable. Qualification tournaments on the ATP Challenger Tour are usually not notable. Qualification draws on the ATP Tour should be placed near the bottom of the main draw page. Lesser tournaments may be listed in List of ATP Challenger Tour events or List of ITF Men's Circuit events and brief information provided there (with sources), and redirects from tournament names to that list may be created.
 * Women: Notable tournaments include the WTA Premier tournaments (including qualifications), WTA International tournaments (including qualifications) and WTA 125K series. From 2008 onwards the ITF Women's $50,000–$100,000+ tournaments are notable. From 1978–2007 the threshold for notability in the women's ITF circuit is a $25,000 event. Qualification tournaments in ITF women's events are not notable. Qualification draws for WTA main tour should be placed near the bottom of the main draw page. Lesser tournaments may be listed in List of ITF Women's Circuit events and brief information provided there, and redirects from tournament names to that list may be created.
 * Exhibition tournaments should establish their notability on other grounds (e.g. several top 10 players present, notability in history, significant media coverage,... etc.).
 * When naming the new tournament page try to avoid the indication of sponsorship in the title and focus on the commonly accepted/known name of the tournament (which generally refers to the place where it's held or a famous person that it is named after, though sometimes it is inevitable).

Other

 * If it's a match :
 * Matches that deserve their own articles on Wikipedia are those that have received significant coverage compared to other tennis matches at a similar level, such as matches of record-setting events or matches with significant controversies. Please consult WP:TENNIS before creating such articles. See Category:Tennis matches


 * If it's a national tennis team :
 * significant coverage is likely to exist for very nation's Davis Cup and Fed Cup team. Hopman Cup teams would be the same.


 * If it's a rivalry :
 * According to WP:NRIVALRY, rivalries are not inherently notable. We can only have articles about tennis rivalries if there is significant media coverage about the rivalry. For example, great rivalries like Agassi–Sampras or Federer–Nadal warrant an article, but articles about rivalries like Agassi–Rafter and Federer–Hewitt have been deleted by the community. If in doubt, consult WP:TENNIS before creating a new rivalry article.


 * If it is a tennis club or organization :
 * Notability for clubs and organizations is established by the criteria set out in WP:N. Generally there needs to be in-depth coverage in several reliable independent sources before a club or organization can be considered notable.


 * If it's an item of equipment :
 * Focus on its significance, usage, development and evolution, historical background and avoid advertisement and commercial purposes.
 * For rules, court types, stadiums... etc. :
 * For tennis venues, consider WP:NPLACE and WP:LOCAL.
 * Though most of the possible articles exist, feel free to improve them. For a complete list see tennis box
 * Wheelchair tennis :
 * Wheelchair tennis tournaments: the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Wheelchair Tennis Masters and the Summer Paralympics are notable.
 * Players are notable if they have won a Grand Slam tournament or end of year championship (in singles or doubles). Players are additionally notable if they were part of the winning team at the World Team Cup or won a medal at the Paralympics. See also WP:NOLYMPICS
 * Please do not create standalone draw articles for wheelchair tennis tournaments, include them in the main article, unless at a Grand Slam tournament.

Format
General format considerations

#1:Infobox

 * Players and coaches – Infobox tennis biography
 * Tournaments
 * Grand Slam tournaments – Infobox GrandSlamTournaments
 * All other tournaments – Infobox tennis tournament
 * Tournament edition – Infobox tennis tournament year
 * Tournament event – Infobox tennis tournament event
 * Scores and matches – DavisCupbox, infobox tennis match, Infobox GrandSlamTournamentsFinals, etc.

A full list can be found at Category:Tennis infobox templates.

Scores
Tennis scores should be given in the following format, observing the use of the en dash separating the set scores, followed by a comma. Both winning and losing tie break scores should be added enclosed in undefined tags, again using an en dash.
 * format: 7–5, 6–7(6–8), 7–6(7–5), 3–6, 16–14
 * en dash should always be used instead of a hyphen, preferably with the en dash symbol "–" rather than the en dash entity "&amp;ndash;".
 * scores should not be added to prose unless strictly necessary (i.e. sets a record). In such cases the tiebreak score is omitted. Just report the round and whether the player won or lost the match, and whom they played.
 * In wikitables and infoboxes, the above format is to be used.
 * In tournament draw/bracket-type articles (e.g. 2019 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles), both winning and losing tiebreak scores are required in superscript:


 * Retirements and disqualifications are also superscripted, with neither team's score bolded. If occurring at the end of a set, they are shown at 0–0 in the next set:


 * Walkovers are placed on the side of the team that progresses in the tournament:

Pictures
Per discussions, keep pictures to a reasonable amount based on article size. Two or three is usually enough for most articles, with a maximum of ten for the largest articles. Picture placement should usually convey the information being described in the prose.

Flags
In line with tennis talk summaries and Rfc's, and trying to stay in synch with WP:MOSFLAG, flagicons should be used only to show the internationally recognized nationality of players when they are representing their country in a competition, or to show the nationality of teams in team events (see Davis Cup). Flagicons should not be used to identify tournament locations, places of birth and death, residences, cities, or venues. Per MOS:INFOBOXFLAG, the infobox may contain the national flag icon of an athlete who competes in competitions where national flags are commonly used as representations of sporting nationality in a given sport, but this does not include events such as 1974 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships, where competitors are representing their colleges or universities.

Sections
What items, headers, infoboxes, navboxes, etc. should exist in certain articles?

#2:Lead
The Lead should be a brief summary of WHO the person is, WHY they are here (accomplishments), potentially WHAT they are doing now. Laura Robson (born 21 January 1994) is an English tennis player. She debuted on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior tour in 2007, and a year later won the Wimbledon Junior Girls' Championship at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached the final of the Australian Open, in 2009 and 2010. She won her first professional tournament in November 2008. As of 8 November 2010, Robson has a rank on the WTA singles tour of 206 and doubles tour of 127.

#3:History
Juan Martín del Potro was born in Tandil, Argentina. His father, Daniel del Potro, played semi-professional rugby union in Argentina and is a veterinarian. His mother, Patricia, is a teacher and he has a younger sister named Julieta. Del Potro speaks Spanish and knows some Italian and English. [...] Del Potro began playing tennis at the age of seven with coach Marcelo Gómez (who also coached Tandil-born players Juan Mónaco, Mariano Zabaleta and Máximo González). Del Potro's talent was discovered by Italian ex-tennis professional Ugo Colombini, who accompanied him through the initial phases of his young career, and is still today his agent and close friend.
 * History – Childhood, where grew up, college.

(Leander) Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras in 1985 where he was coached by Dave O'Meara. The academy played a key role in his early development. Leander shot into international fame when he won the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and rose to No. 1 in the junior world-rankings.
 * Early years – amateur playing career.

#4:Career
(Michael) Boulding was both a skilled footballer and tennis player as a schoolboy, but he was persuaded to pursue a career in the latter sport when he was talent spotted by coach Tony Pickard at the age of 13. Boulding was part of the national squad and played in events across the world, including India, South America, the Far East, and also the junior Wimbledon Championships and the qualifying rounds of the main Grand Slam event. During his career he roomed with Tim Henman and was ranked the top 20 players in Britain. He held an ATP singles world ranking between 8 July 1996 and 1 November 1999, apart from between 25 August 1997 and 24 August 1998, which peaked at 1,119 with four world ranking points on 3 May 1999.[...]Boulding maintained his links with football and trained with Doncaster Rovers, and in 1998 he joined non-league Hallam near his home in Sheffield. His form at Hallam attracted the interest of a number of league clubs, and Boulding was offered a trial by Mansfield Town. He was given a contract by the Division Three side and turned professional in 1999, which brought an end to his tennis career. Otherwise the following wikitable is institutionalized with columns for Result, W–L, Date, Tournament, Tier, Surface, Opponent, and Score. Results shall show a "win" or "loss" in the final. W–L shall be in small format and show the running total of wins and losses in finals. The date should show the month/year of the event, be in month year format to properly sort, and link to the specific yearly tournament draw if possible. The common tournament title should always be used along with its host country (e.g. Australian Open, Australia) rather than simply just the city and country in which the event is held (e.g. Melbourne, Australia). These should be the non-sponsored event names if possible. The tier names can be abbreviated so as not to make the column too wide. The tournament and tier columns should be properly color-coded to match the ATP/WTA tier level as explained below in the Tournament color scheme section. Subsections containing this table should be named Career finals / ATP Tour and Grand Slam finals or any other that refers to the content.
 * When they turned pro
 * Grand Slam tournament and other important wins
 * High point
 * Later years – sometimes players are known more for what they did AFTER tennis.
 * Results – If the scoreboard is more than {twenty?}; consider splitting out into a separate article named "{personName} career statistics". Such as Novak Djokovic career statistics.

Legends include:
Under the "Tournament" column, the name of the event and country are required, no city name. If the tournament name is unwieldy in length, a long country name can be abbreviated such as: UK, US, UAE.

Tournament color scheme
The following standardized color scheme should be used for all articles containing a tournament overview. The color scheme is AAA-level compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Historic tournaments that pre-date the current tournament classification should follow the scheme either directly, in case of predecessors, or else as closely as possible. If different than the legend, abbreviations used in tables are in parentheses.

Player performance timelines
For singles performance timelines, the following tables are acceptable for both ATP and WTA players. There are complex and simplified versions depending on the player. Note that no (flag)icons are used in these tables.

Davis Cup
For the Davis Cup matches of a player please use the following tables. Note that we use flags for the country but not the players. Remember to link all of the opponents even if the link turns red since every player chosen to play in the Davis Cup is notable and add Performance key to the bottom of the table.

Such as List of career achievements by Rafael Nadal. (Martina) Hingis played an exhibition match at the Liverpool International tournament on 13 June 2008. Although this event was a warm-up for Wimbledon, it was not part of the WTA Tour. This allowed Hingis to participate without breaching the rules of her ban. In a rematch of their 1997 Wimbledon final, Hingis defeated Jana Novotná.
 * Awards or Records – Just a summary with links to the awarding organization or a list of records. (The reference should be on the "LINKED TO" article; not the "Person" article).
 * Retirement – Notable achievements outside of playing; often not related to tennis.

In 2009 Hingis partook in the BBC's dancing event, Strictly Come Dancing, where she was the bookies favourite for the television show. But she went out in the first week after performing a Waltz and a Rumba, despite vowing to win the competition. 'She promised to apply the same gritty approach to the dance show that had taken her to five grand slams on the tennis court. "Everything I do I do to win. I am very competitive."

#5:See also
The "See also" section should/could include:
 * 1) Lists (Top Men, or Top Women)
 * 2) [Country] Davis Cup team (if a member of it)
 * 3) Rivalries (if noteworthy)
 * 4) Olympics-related links (if participated)

#6:References

 * No standard: either or  (2 for two columns) or  (width of column)

#7:External links
Please include the applicable following parameters (usage description is at the template page)
 * ATP
 * WTA
 * ITF profile
 * Davis Cup player
 * Billie Jean King Cup player

and consider using Commons category (if any)

Footers
Also called "navboxes". These are located after "External References", but before any category section.

#8:Grand Slam "succession" box
Say you are on an "Australian Open" article...This sequence: Produces:
 * start box
 * end box
 * end box


 * previous = US Open (Notice the Help:Pipe trick)
 * Main article is year IN-specific
 * next = French Open (in May/June)
 * Use the "Years" field for the Month the tournament is played: "January"

Year article

 * Year article shows THIS tournament from one year to another:


 * Year article showing one Grand Slam to the next:


 * Year article showing tennis sequence:

#9:Bottom Navboxes
If we stay with the Australian Open...
 * "Amateur" version of the tournament
 * Australian Championships (tennis)
 * "Open Era" version of the tournament
 * Australian Open tournaments
 * If newer tournament
 * Indian Wells Masters tournaments
 * Tournament Grouping
 * Grand Slam Tournaments
 * ATP Masters tournaments and WTA 1000 tournaments
 * ATP 500 tournaments and WTA 500 tournaments
 * ATP 250 tournaments and WTA 250 tournaments


 * Other local sporting events; Town, State, or Country
 * Melbourne events

#10:Categories

 * Watch for templates (especially within the footers) that may have already included a category.
 * If people constantly add things they should not; place a comment at that spot

#1: Introduction
Small presentation of the team: when they first played in the cup, how many titles they've won, the group/zone they compete in, their national governing body and the current coach.

#2: Current team
List of current squad (it should not be limited to the squad of their last match but the biggest extent of players who are frequently invited to play and available for the coach to draft)

#3: History
It could be a longer chronological description of major breakthroughs, titles, finals, big achievements, highest world ranking (of nations).

#4: Players
All the players who played for the team during the years.

#5: Results
Tables could be implemented:

#6: See also
Use davisfedseealso (see template documentation for usage information)

#7: External links
Make sure the following are listed and categories present:
 * DavisCup team
 * Davis Cup
 * (country) national teams template if exists
 * Category:Davis Cup teams
 * National sports teams of (country) category
 * Tennis in (country) category

Draws
See 2010 Davis Cup for sections, links, arrangement; ordering of draws, matches, teams.

General
Guidelines for linking general text.
 * the word tennis should only be linked the FIRST time it is used and only when reference to the Tennis article would enhance the reader's understanding.

Dates

 * Do not link dates unless linked in a tennis context, as in: yyyy in tennis.
 * Only link dates as above once in an article.

People

 * Players – should not be referenced every single time they are mentioned, but it is usually appropriate to link them the FIRST time they are referenced with a specific context.
 * Tournaments – Only if the player was in the final, it was their highest achievement, or it was recently played (within the current year).

Lists
When links to lists are appropriate, which lists are appropriate.
 * Current Top Players – Navbox, Category
 * Player records
 * Current Top tournaments

Categories
What categories should be linked and where.
 * Add the most specific category possible.

Categories that are in templates and should NOT be added directly:
 * Born in 'year'
 * Died in 'year'
 * Retired Tennis players

Photos
When adding photos to the articles the easiest way to have a clear copyright status is to use photos that you made yourself. Otherwise you can upload free photos but in most of the cases photos found on internet are not free or in the public domain and can not be used. When using Flickr be careful to follow the steps written here and don't forget to make it reviewed. Also try to browse Tennis on Commons for possibly free images. The basic concepts of uploading and further reading can be found here:
 * Media copyright questions
 * Image use policy
 * Uploading images