The 2026 edition of the Australian Open gets up and running this weekend and one of its former stars became the first tennis player to ever grace the cover of Playboy
As the first round of the 2026 Australian Open gets going, some of the world’s best tennis stars will find themselves vying for glory in Melbourne. American star Ashley Harkleroad was once among that group, but the retired ace made headlines for different reasons in 2008.
Harkleroad secured her best-ever Australian Open finish in 2007, causing a shock against seeded German player Anna-Lena Groenefeld before losing to Daniela Hantuchova in the third round. The following year, though, she found herself on the cover of US Playboy.
In early 2008, the American had been recovering from ovarian cyst surgery when the opportunity to pose for the magazine came about. “I was just laying there for three weeks, and, you know, an offer came to me,” she said after a French Open defeat to Serena Williams in May of that year.
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“I thought, well, I’m not really doing anything right now so I thought about it and it was something that I did. I’m proud of my body. I was representing a female athlete’s body.
“It was hard work, but, you know, it was just a completely different experience. It was fun. I think it comes out July 13th. It’s the August edition. So you’ll see for yourself.”
Harkleroad was just 23 when that issue of Playboy came out and she gave birth to her first child with husband and former tennis pro Chuck Adams in March 2009. She became a mother for a second time in 2011 and retired from tennis the following year.
These days, the former pro boasts 129,000 followers on Instagram. It was on the platform that she posed naked in 2023 in snaps which caught the attention of fans.
Her Instagram profile makes reference to the Playboy cover back in 2008 but her tennis achievements get top billing.
She was just 18 years old when she reached a career high ranking of 39th in the world in 2003 after a run to the third round at Roland Garros.
That French Open run is her joint-best Grand Slam performance along with the third-round run in Australia in 2007.
She reached the second round at Wimbledon in 2006, losing to Maria Sharapova, while Vera Zvonareva ended her US Open run at the same stage in 2003.
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Harkleroad had more luck when it came to doubles, reaching the quarter-finals in both Australia and France. On both occasions she was playing with Russian star Galina Voskoboeva.
Taiwanese wildcards and surprise finalists Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung got the better of them in Melbourne. Four of her five career finals came in doubles tournaments.
That included a pair of finals alongside compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands in 2006. Her only career WTA singles final ended in defeat against Eleni Daniilidou in New Zealand in 2004.