Ashley Harkleroad, 23, surprised everyone by announcing she would appear in the August issue of Playboy magazine. The American tennis player was just knocked out from the French Open by her compatriot, Serena Williams, but she still managed to steal the headlines.

Ashely Harkleroad’s pictorial will also be a premiere for Playboy as the young female is the first tennis player to ever appear in Hugh Hefner’s magazine.

The August issue of Playboy will hit the newsstands on July 13 and Ashley Harkleroad agreed to reveal some details about the photos.

"It's Playboy. It's very classy, so...,” she said when the reporters asked about how much exposure was on offer.

Ashley Harkleroad said she is proud of her body and she thinks it is representative for a female athlete. She said she agreed to the photo pictorial a few weeks ago, while recovering from an ovarian cyst operation. She described her photo shoot out as a “hard” but also “fun” experience.

Harkleroad was born in Rossville, Georgia and she made her debut as a professional tennis player in 2000. She achieved her highest rank in WTA, Nr. 39, in 2003. She is currently ranked 60 in singles and 145 in doubles.