Over 30 years ago, Fiona Butler (now Walker) posed for a photo on Birmingham University’s tennis courts. It is without doubt one of the most instantly recognisable images associated with tennis, aptly named ‘Tennis Girl‘.

The fact she was neither a model nor a tennis player was unimportant, the Athena poster adorned many a boy's wall for years and sold millions. The demand for the poster got so strong last year, they had to print off signed limited edition versions which were selling for £300 a go!

Hardly surprising that as news broke through to my HQ that American tennis player Ashley Harkleroad was going naked in the August issue of Playboy, the image of young Fiona Butler popped almost instantly into my head, although she’s 50 now!

The Athena poster was tasteful and probably a slight poke at the ethos that tennis was played by the children of rich families and that they’d never ever be seen to bring the sport into disrepute in that kind of way.

Of course, if it was once frowned upon amongst the higher echelon of the tennis fraternity, it didn’t take them too long to change their mind when the rustle of pounds and dollars started pouring into the game. Now we have skimpy branded outfits that leave little to the imagination and lucrative modelling, TV and sponsorship contracts which they lap up with as much grace as a McEnroe line call.

£50,000 doesn’t seem like a huge amount to tempt a young lady to bare all in a game full of millionaires but I suppose the money was nothing to do with it anyway. The fact she was convalescing from surgery to an ovarian cyst and then licking her wounds from early exits from the French Open and Wimbledon probably just reinforced her decision.