User:MakeSense64/Tennis names

Tennis player names

In article titles

Nearly all the reliable English language sources we use for our tennis articles (draws and results of tournaments, articles in sports media,...) consistently use the English spelling of the names of players, based on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) naming convention (IPIN). This is the most recognizable name that the majority of English language users will type in when they search for the article about a certain player. So this becomes the preferred title for articles about tennis players.
This is also consistent with existing WP policies like WP:UE , WP:COMMONNAME and WP:STAGENAME.

The "full name" of the player should be mentioned early in the lede per: WP:MOSBIO and WP:LEAD.

In the body of articles

In the body of the article we use the spelling of the names as it is found in the majority of sources used for the article. In practice this generally means we use the English spelling of names, because that's the spelling we find in over 95% of our sources about tennis. Adding diacritics back in for the names that have them in their native spelling, would be a lot of work and easily introduce errors. It would also require a source for the native spelling that is being added. WP:V

Examples

Some examples of consistent use of English spelling for all player names in the sources we use most frequently for tennis articles:

• Tennis coverage at ESPN: [1]
• Tennis coverage at Yahoo Sports: [2]
• Tennis coverage at Reuters: [3]
• Tennis news at Associated Press(AP): [4]
• A drawsheet from the 2012 Australian Open (men): [5]
• A drawsheet from the 2011 French Open (women): [6]
• Results displayed on the official site of the Serbian Open: [7]
• A drawsheet published on the official site of the Budapest Grand Prix: [8]
• Profile of a player at the ATP Tour site: [9]
• Profile of a player at the ITF site: [10]
• Profile of a player at the Davis Cup site: [11]
• Profile of a player at the WTA site: [12]
• Profile of a player at the Fed Cup site: [13]

Exceptions:

• The Eurosport website uses diacritics for some players, but not in a consistent way: [14]

IPIN registration

Since 2004, the ITF uses an online registration system called IPIN. Players register themselves under a name of their choice. By ITF convention this is always an English spelling name. Without this registration players cannot compete in any of the events we consider notable per WP:NTENNIS.

All the official sources from ITF, ATP Tour, WTA Tour, Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Grand Slam consistently use the player names based on this official IPIN registration. These are the names that get displayed on the scoreboard during matches, in the drawsheets, in the official results, in the official world rankings, and on the player profile pages displayed on the various tennis tour websites.

The vast majority of reliable English sources take their information from these official sources, and thus the IPIN name becomes the name they use in their articles, respecting the player's choice how they want to be named in connection with their activity as a tennis player. Even encyclopedias like Britannica, where native spelling of names is usually adhered to, use the player's name as found on the ITF site (thus non-diacritics) in nearly all cases: Tennis players at Britannica. Ilie Nastase and Helena Sukova (two names we currently keep with diacritics here on WP), are at their anglicized name. So is Novak Djokovic.

Bottom line: a lot of tennis players do not compete under their "real" name, but under a "player name" of their choice. It is like a stagename WP:STAGENAME.

See also

• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (sportspeople)
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (baseball players)
• Wikipedia:Requested moves/Tennis (failed proposal in 2008)
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English)/Diacritics RfC (failed proposal in 2011)