Ashley Harkleroad to Pose for Playboy

Tennis player Ashley Harkleroad has confirmed that she will pose for Playboy magazine, according to an article in USA Today. The article says Harkleroad, who started out as a teen phenom and is now 23 years old, will appear in a pictorial in the August issue of Playboy.

Harkleroad will be the first tennis player to pose for Playboy. She seemed cagey when asked why she decided to pose. "There's a few reasons why I did it, but I can't really go into it right now," she added. "But like I said, I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. I'm proud of my body. I stay in shape and try to stay fit."

Ashley Harkleroad is now married and while it may seem odd for her to pose for Playboy, the pictorial may not feature the magazine's traditional explicit photography, but rather the less racy type of shots that Lindsay Lohan did for Vanity Fair, or even something less explicit than that.

Ashley Harkleroad was an up-and-coming juniors player as a teen and seemed destined for stardom, but then was slowed by a number of injuries. Earlier this year she had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. She had high hopes for continuing her comeback at this year's French Open, but unfortunately she was assigned Serena Williams as a first-round opponent, and Williams defeated Harkleroad convincingly today.