Talk:Milos Raonic/2016 article cleanup

It has been almost 5 years since the last major effort to improve the quality of the Milos Raonic article. His career has progressed substantially since then, and it is time for another systematic update.

Below is my (User:Saskoiler) review of the article as it currently is (February 8, 2016). It includes a plan of the changes I intend to make, section-by-section, as time allows.

I welcome feedback from any interested editors with ideas about how to improve this article. Saskoiler (talk) 18:47, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

Overall goal

• Raise the quality from the article (presently "C") to "B" and then to "GA" quality

Key Strategies

• Incorporate feedback from 2011 peer review and Talk:Milos_Raonic
• Improve consistency with manual of style (WP:MOS), expecially for biographies (WP:MOSBIO)
• Improve overall quality and level of prose, ensuring neutral point of view (WP:NPOV)
• Improve verifiability of information (WP:V) by finding and adding missing references
• Improve the lead paragraphs to better summarize notability (WP:LEAD)
• Improve the quality and number of images, as appropriate (MOS:IMAGES). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Saskoiler (talk • contribs) 03:09, 9 February 2016 (UTC)
• Improve consistency with other top tennis biographies:

Quality Scale	Selected high quality tennis biographies and/or Raonic comparables (contemporary top 5 player)
"GA"	Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Leander Paes, Svetlana Kuznetsova
"B"	Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep
"C"	Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Tomáš Berdych, David Ferrer
"Start"	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Article structure and top-level sections

Most of the top-level sections are completely reasonable and appear to be consistently layed out when compared with comparable tennis biographies. There are a few differences, however:

Junior tennis career

• I don't really understand why there's separate sections for "Junior tennis career" and "Professional tennis career". None of these have such a breakdown: Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Wawrinka, Berdych, Nishikori, Ferrer, Tsonga.
  • Recommend: Rename to simply "Tennis career", and move the junior stuff into a subsection labelled "Junior career". Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

Commentating

• This is a very odd section for two reasons:

1. It contains only one sentence. (And there is not likely much more until Raonic retires at least.) WP:BODY suggests "Very short or very long sections and subsections in an article look cluttered and inhibit the flow of the prose."
2. I am unaware of any other similar tennis biography article for an active player that has such a section. WP:BODY says: "The usual practice is to name and order sections based on the precedent of some article which seems similar."

• Recommend: Delete this top-level section, and merge this sentence into "Personal life" section. Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

U.S. Open tennis record

• Like the "Commentating" section, this section stands out as an orphan and is not parallel to other section headings. Unlike the "Commentating" section, there is a reasonable chance that Raonic would have other records to insert here, so it could grow. In particular, there may be additional content about his serve that may be appropriate here.
  • Recommend: Move the prose into the appropriate place in the "tennis career" section. Y Done: Feb 8, 2016
  • Recommend: Create a new sub-section called "Records" within "Career statistics". This is consistent with organization of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Stan Wawrinka articles. Y Done: Feb 16, 2016 (and added several other records)
  • Recommend: Need to cite reference for this record. Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

Personal life

• To be more consistent across tennis biography articles, it seems like this section should be located at the top of the article (above "Tennis career"). This is the location in all of these articles: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori.
  • Recommend: Move this section to the top above "Tennis career" Y Done: Feb 8, 2016
  • Recommend: Consider renaming to "Early and Personal Life" (similar articles seem split on this naming) Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

Article Lead (WP:LEAD)

The material present in the lead paragraphs doesn't accurately capture the essential bit of Raonic's notability. On the one hand, there are currently some details included that are not essential to his notability (birth place, moving to Canada, first tennis club, sparse coaching details). On the other hand, there is a lack of detail on the things that make him truly notable (top 10 player up to #4; highest ranked Canadian male ever; semi-finals in 2014 Wimbledon and 2016 Australian Open; 2-time ATP 1000 finalist; highest career victory at Washington 2014, the first ever all-Canadian final)

Cut or reduce...

• Birth place details ("Born in Titograd... Yugoslavia") are not essential to Raonic's notability, so do not belong in the lead (WP:BIRTHPLACE).
  • Recommend: Move to "personal life" section. Y Done: February 15, 2016
• "... Raonic moved to Canada with his family at the age of three, learning the game at the Bramalea Tennis Club in Brampton" is not essential for notability, and does not belong in the lead. This should go to the "personal life" section. (However, it seems to conflict with "... Blackmore Tennis club in Richmond Hill ..." there. Will need to resolve.) Y Done: February 15, 2016
  • Recommend: Move to "personal life" section, and resolve potential factual conflict.
• First grand slam (2010 US Open) where he lost in the first round is not essential. The much more important "first essential career highlight" is making it to the 4th round of the 2011 Australian Open.
  • Recommend: Remove reference to 2010 US Open. Y Done: February 15, 2016
• Coach detail. Being coached by Galo Blanco is not essential for Raonic's notability. Ditto for Ivan Ljubičić. It is sufficient to have these listed in the Infobox, and in the "career" section as relevant.
  • Recommend: Remove from lead paragraphs. Y Done: Feb 19, 2016

Keep, add, or expand

• 2011 Australian Open (4th round) - Yes, first big breakthrough.
  • Recommend: Keep, perhaps strengthen. Y Done: Feb 19, 2016
• First ATP title - Good, because it came the same month as 2011 Australian Open. (If Raonic continues to climb and go on to win majors, this detail may not warrant the lead anymore.)
  • Recommend: Keep for now. Y Done: Feb 19, 2016
• Preference for hard courts - Yes, I would agree, but this probably should be moved closer to discussion of his serve. Also, the article which supports this fact is getting a bit dated (2013).
  • Recommend: Move to paragraph about serve. Update article reference, if possible.
• Serve - Yes, it is the most distinctive part of his game, and is appropriate for the lead. The prose needs some cleanup, however, to build upon the random 2012 stat (unsupported) and the quote from Djokovic.
  • Recommend: Cleanup. Make stronger. Y Done: Feb 28, 2016
• Top-10 player - Raonic broke into top 10 in 2013, stayed there through much of 2015, peaking at number 4. Yet there is no mention of this in the lead.
  • Recommend: Add this to the lead, with references. Y Done: Feb 19, 2016
• Top Canadian singles player in history - Raonic is frequently referred to as the most successful Canadian in media coverage (articles, broadcasts), and he's responsible for numerous Canadian "firsts". Yet none of this is mentioned in the lead at all.
  • Recommend: Add paragraph to the lead focussed on Canadian connection. (Leander Paes article is a good example where national tennis notability is highlighted in the lead section.) Y Done: Feb 19, 2016

Junior Career

This whole section seems quite excessive, primarily because Raonic did not have a particularly notable junior career given his later success as a pro. (His career high junior combined ranking was just 35, and he did not reach the final of any grade A junior tournament.)

• Most of this section does not serve to establish notability of Raonic, and is at the level of newspaper reporting. On this basis, it does not belong in this article (WP:NOTNEWS).
  • Recommend: Remove substantial parts of this section, leaving only the following which mark junior milestones in his career: Y All done - Feb 19, 2016
    • First ITF junior match (Oct 2003) - Establishes beginning of his ITF career, at age 12.
    • First singles win (Oct 2005) - This is more important than his doubles match victory, mostly because so little of Raonic's notability is due to his doubles play.
    • First tournament victory (Grade 4 event - October 2006) - Notable also because he won both singles and doubles.
    • Only Grade 1 tournament victories (April 2008 doubles, Jan 2008 doubles) - These were his highest tournament victories as a junior.
    • Semi-final doubles in 2008 French Open - Only significant grand slam junior achievement
    • A summary statement with junior career totals for matches and/or finals.

• The junior grand slam singles/doubles summary is not really incorporated into this section, as it sits somewhere between prose and a table. Further, it isn't notable (other than the SF mentioned above).
  • Recommend: Either delete outright, or move this to a table within Milos Raonic career statistics. Y Done - Feb 19, 2016 (summarized key detail in prose)

Professional Tennis Career

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

The level of detail provided in the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 is too much.

• Much of the detail is newspaper-like and bordering on trivia. Wikipedia is not a newspaper (WP:NOTNEWS).
• Further, much of these paragraphs adds very little that isn't already available in primary sources (like his ITF or ATP profiles). These primary sources already contain a complete list of every tournament, match, opponent, and score that Raonic played, and there is no benefit to replicating all of it here.
• The match/tournament/event may by notable if:
  • It's the first of his career of a given kind (e.g. first ATP challenger title; first Grand slam event played; first grand slam wins; first Davis Cup event/win; first top 10 victory; etc). These milestones help to track the pace and history of his development.
  • He accomplished something rare or unusual (e.g. he defended a title; he set a record; etc.)
  • He played an opponent that wouldn't be expected given his level at the time (e.g. he played doubles in 2010 against Nadal and Djokovic, partnering Pospisil)
  • He beat a player ranked significantly higher than himself (e.g. he knocked off a grand slam seeded player as a qualifier)
  • He lost to a player ranked significantly higher than himself (e.g. he was seeded at a grand slam and knocked out by a qualifier... this doesn't happen in the early years, but could be notable once he broke into the top 20 or top 10.)
  • He achieved a new milestone career-high ranking (e.g. top 100, top 50, top 10, etc.)
  • He hired a coach, suffered a significant injury, or made some other significant change to the evolution of his game.

There is a severe lack of references. In 2009, for example, the first six paragraphs contain substantial text and detail, but with just a single reference (in the 3rd paragraph).

• In most cases, the types of "notable" matches/events listed above are likely to garner reference articles associated with them.
• Conversely, the lack of references may indicate that nothing noteworthy was happening. Here's an example which perfectly illustrates something which should be cut: "The following week in Little Rock, Arkansas, Raonic qualified for the main draw as the No. 2 seed, but lost in the first round. He did not play doubles."

What to do?

• Recommend: Significant cuts, trimming the trivial details, and leaving only notable events that show a progression of his career from juniors through his breakthrough in 2011. Y Done - Feb 19, 2016
• Recommend: Remaining rewritten paragraphs must include appropriate references. Y Done - Feb 19, 2016
• Recommend: Depending how much is left, consider merging into a single subsection titled "2007-2010: Early Professional Career" or "2007-2010: Outside the top 100" or something like that. Y Done - Feb 19, 2016 (I opted to group 2007-2009, and leave 2010 by itself)

2011

This year was his breakthrough year in many ways (fourth round at Australian Open; first title; first main draw entry into many tournaments; first significant media coverage) so I think it justifies quite a bit more detail than earlier years. Having said that, there's a little bit of trivia in places, references are missing in many places, and there seems to be key material missing (e.g. we only have two words about the injury -- "hip surgery" -- suffered at Wimbledon? He missed a couple of months, including US Open. It must have been pretty serious.)

• Recommend: General editing improvements, tightening up prose. Y Done - Feb 20, 2016
• Recommend: Adding relevant references to sections that are missing them. Y Done - Feb 20, 2016
• Recommend: Fill in missing details (e.g. like the injury) Y Done - Feb 20, 2016

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

These years have better overall quality than previous years, but could still use some cleanup.

• Recommend: General editing improvements, tightening up prose. Y Done - Feb 26, 2016
• Recommend: Adding relevant references to sections that are missing them. Y Done - Feb 26, 2016
• Recommend: Fill in missing details Y Done - Feb 26, 2016

National Representation

• With the addition of a lead paragraph for this section (taken from the "Personal life section"), I think that this section is a complementary piece of this article. (The alternative -- which I don't favor -- would be to merge all of this detail into the year-by-year "Tennis Career" narrative as is done for some other players.)
  • Recommend: Keep this section. Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori are good examples of comparable articles that has a section like this. Y Done, with some rewording.

Davis Cup

• There are no references in this section.
  • Recommend: Add references, as necessary. Y Done - Feb 26, 2016

• There is at least one misleading (incorrect) statement: "Raonic would play a crucial role in Canada's 2011 Davis Cup campaign that would result in World Group promotion which included several singles victories and a doubles win." Raonic won two (not several) singles and a doubles match against Mexico, and then did not win in the other two ties that year against Ecuador and Israel. Although every win in Davis Cup can be "crucial", it is a bit misleading. Further, Pospisil had three singles and three doubles wins that year, so his role was greater than Raonic's.
  • Recommend: Clean up language to remove bias. Y Done - Feb 26, 2016

• The level of detail provided is imbalanced. I could accept an argument to include his opponent in his first Davis Cup match (Giraldo), but don't understand why some other opponents are listed (e.g. Ramos, Garcia-Lopez), while other much more prominent top-20 or top-10 opponents (e.g. Fognini, Seppi, Tipsarevic, Djokovic, Nishikori) are not. In general, I think much of the smaller details can be left out, since they are captured more than adequately in the summary table within Milos Raonic career statistics
  • Recommend: Clean up the level of detail, summarizing key opponents over less notable ones. Aim for more encyclopedic rather than newspaper-like coverage. Y Done - Feb 26, 2016

• The included table includes the only overall Davis Cup summary for Raonic (it is not included in the paragraphs), but the table oddly includes only 2010 and 2011 results. It would be better to just delete the table outright as it is covered already in Milos Raonic career statistics.
  • Recommend: Move the summary into the paragraph text to summarize his overall impact in Davis Cup. Y Done: Feb 17, 2016
  • Recommend: Delete the table. Instead, link to the table in Milos Raonic career statistics. Y Done: Feb 17, 2016

Olympics

• I think this section could be tightened up with stronger prose. For example, the first paragraph doesn't even mention that Raonic's match was, at that time, the longest match (by clock time); however, the third paragraph implies that it was because then that record was broken three days later.
  • Recommend: Rewrite to add clarity. Merge the 2nd paragraph into the 1st as it is currently a dangling fragment. Y Done: Feb 26, 2016
  • Recommend: Add references, if necessary. Y Done: Feb 26, 2016

U.S. Open tennis record

As stated above, this section could be moved and made into a sub-section of "Career Statistics". Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

• No references are given.
  • Recommend: Add references. Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

Playing style

• There are no references.
  • Recommend: Add references throughout, as necessary. Y Done: Feb 28, 2016

• This section needs considerable rewrite to ensure neutral point of view (WP:NPOV).
  • Recommend: Rewrite throughout. Y Done: Feb 28, 2016

• Any rewrite of this section should probably reflect changes to his playing style over time. For example, earlier commentary of Raonic focussed almost entirely on his serve. Around 2014, he started getting more agressive at coming forward. Around 2016, he started getting praise for serve and volley, and more balance. This is just a short list, but references should be found to accurately reflect the evolution of his playing style.
  • Recommend: Rewrite with references. N As I researched this in more detail, and reflected upon it further, I decided against this at this time. I fear that whatever I would write now (in Feb 2016) would unduly weight his recent success at the 2016 Australian Open, and he probably needs to demonstrate improvements over a longer period of time before we can say that his style of play has significantly changed.

Equipment

• This section is void of references.
  • Recommend: Finding and adding references. Y Done: Feb 10, 2016

• Re: Sleeve - Raonic's sleeve has become a distinctive part of his look, and frequently gets mentioned in media (print, online, and broadcast). There's Twitter accounts about it. Other professional players have commented on it. It is certainly part of what makes Raonic notable, and deserves mention here.
  • Recommend: Add paragraph (or even a sub-section) about sleeve, with references. Y Done: March 4, 2016
  • Recommend: Add photographs highlighting sleeve, if possible. Y Done: March 4, 2016

• Overall, this section is quite sparse, considerably smaller than similar articles of tennis contemporaries. Since sponsorships are a big part of tennis and because they are commonly referred to in articles about Raonic, there should be more content here.
  • Recommend: Locate and add additional details, with references. Y Done: Feb 10, 2016

Career statistics

No changes needed other than creation of new sub-section for "Records", as mentioned elsewhere.

Any other changes would probably result in duplication of content in Milos Raonic career statistics.

Awards

Overall, okay.

• Recommend: Need reference for 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year. Should be easy to find. Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

• Recommend: Consider developing templates and/or Template:Succession_box for the Lionel Conacher Award, although that goes beyond scope of this article.

Commentating

As stated above, this orphan section should be merged into "Personal life" section. Y Done: Feb 8, 2016

Personal life

Overall, this section needs a cleanup and reordering of content to make stronger paragraphs. Also, as stated above, the whole section should probably be moved to above "Tennis career".

• For example, there are family details spread across the first three paragraphs, mixed in with ice hockey anecdotes and sports teams Raonic cheers for. Also, there are details about his brother and sister before details about his parents, and this seems reversed.
  • Recommend: Restructure paragraphs for better focus. Natural groupings seems to be (1) Yugoslav roots, move of family to Canada, details about parents and siblings, and then detail about uncle (2) choice of tennis (over ice hockey) and earliest playing days (3) sports teams he is a fan of (other hobbies would also fall here) Y Restructure done on Feb 10, 2016... still needs some editing. Y Done on Feb 15, 2016

• Re: playing for Canada and growing Canadian tennis. This content is a better fit as a lead for the "National Representation" section. His participation in Davis Cup and the Olympics for Canada is proof of his commitment to grow tennis in Canada.
  • Recommend: Move this paragraph to "National Representation" section. Y Done: Feb 10, 2016

• Re: Milos Raonic Foundation - Seems like there ought to be more to say here, and a good opportunity to expand with a few extra sentences if good references can be found. For example, why did he form a foundation with this focus? Related to being born in Yugoslavia? Or something else?
  • Recommend: Adding relevant details and references if possible. Y Done: Feb 15, 2016

• Re: residence in Monte Carlo - This belongs in a separate paragraph, as it is completely unrelated to the Milos Raonic Foundation. Also, I think there should probably be an additional statement here about the fact that his current coach, Riccardo Piatti, is based there (but that would need a reference too).
  • Split into new paragraph, and add content/references if possible.

New Section... Rivalries? Contemporaries?

I'm not 100% convinced that we need a new section, but have had a few thoughts in studying other tennis biographies:

• Raonic vs Nishikori?
  • Kei Nishikori article has a subsection for "Nishikori vs. Raonic" rivalry.
  • I agree that this is probably the most definitive rivalry for Raonic, and may warrant a short subsection in his article.
  • The two are often discussed together in media, particularly because the pair have been (since 2013?) the two youngest members of the top 10, and fall into the group which tennis pundits discuss could eventually take over from the Big Four (tennis) (although that is clearly not happening yet).
• Raonic, Nishikori, Goffin, Thiem, Tomic, Kyrgios...?
  • This group (whose membership is somewhat fluid) is seen as the next wave in tennis by some in the media.
  • Perhaps warrants mention if sufficient source references can be located.
• Raonic and Pospisil
  • I wouldn't characterize this as a rivalry, but the career paths of Raonic and Pospisil have been intertwined more than any other pair.
  • They played doubles quite a bit as juniors and into their early ATP days. This extended into Davis Cup play.
  • They are Canadian contemporaries in an age without any other significant singles players. That is, they are the only Canadians in the top 100 for several years.
  • They played against one another in the first ATP 1000 semifinal for both players (Canada 2013).
  • They played against one another in the first all-Canadian ATP final (Washington 2014). I can't remember for sure, but I think this was the first ATP singles final for Pospisil, and the first ATP 500 series tournament victory for Raonic.
• Raonic v Big Four (tennis)
  • This hasn't been much of a "rivalry" to date, although the media has emphasized Raonic's significant losing record against all four players.
  • Nonetheless, matches against the Big Four feature highly in Raonic's career milestones:
    • Both ATP 1000 finals for Raonic (lossed to Nadal, Djokovic)
    • Grand slam losses in SF (Federer, Murray) and QF (Djokovic twice)
    • Davis Cup loss to Djokovic
    • Back-to-back finals in Brisbane vs Federer (2015/2016)

• Recommend: Investigate media coverage of all of the above, and consider adding short, strong subsections if warranted. Y Done - Feb 29, 2016

Saskoiler (talk) 18:47, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

Comments

You have certainly taken a very thorough and structured approach to improving this article. Compliments. Have rated the article as B-class and it certainly has GA potential. Two quick scan suggestions for further improvements.

• Remove the citations from the lede per WP:LEADCITE. Although this is not obligatory and should be judged "on a case-by-case basis by editorial consensus" I would recommend it in this case. The nature of the article does not require lede citations and as the lede is an article summary, and therefore should not contain any content that is not already present in the article body, it logically follows that the citations should be in the body and not the lede. It has the added advantage of making the lede easier on the eyes (less cluttered).
• Create (better) paragraphs in the "Tennis career" section. Per MOS:PARAGRAPHS "the number of single-sentence paragraphs should be minimized" to improve the flow of the text. See Roger Federer or Serena Williams for examples.

--Wolbo (talk) 01:39, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

Agree on both suggestions. I will make these improvements. Thanks for the feedback. Saskoiler (talk) 03:10, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

I have acted on both suggestions. (1) Regarding the citations in the lead, I've removed almost all, leaving just a handful for the one debatable statement (best server in today's game), the pronunciation of his name, and a summary statement about his titles that is not cited elsewhere. Looks much cleaner now! (2) Regarding the paragraphs, I've restructured quite a few sections, and I'm quite pleased with how the text looks and flows now.
Saskoiler (talk) 23:02, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

History and words

The history seems not very stable. And what is "'[]' without URLs, only words inside" means? It appears in many places in the article. 333-blue 12:33, 13 March 2016 (UTC)