The 23-year-old Harkleroad found herself kicking her heels earlier this year when she was recovering from surgery to remove a cyst from her ovaries.

While others would choose to convalesce on a relaxing vacation or just lounge in front of the television, Harkleroad chose to accept the offer of posing nude for the world’s most famous glamour magazine.

“I was just laying there for three weeks, and, you know, an offer came to me,” the woman from small town Georgia told goggle-eyed reporters.

“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.”

REFRESHING CHANGE

She said she would be the first tennis player to appear in the magazine, August’s edition the male journalists furiously noted, and that it had been a refreshing change to the treadmill of the women’s tour.

“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.

“I stay in shape and try to stay fit, so like I said, I’m just trying to represent a female athlete and her body. That can be sexy too, you know.”

Serena was full of admiration for Harkleroad’s naked ambition when she was told about the Los Angeles photo shoot.

“I’m just surprised that she beat me to it,” Serena, no stranger to the camera lens herself, joked with reporters.

“I’m happy for her if that’s what she wanted to do. It takes a lot of courage. And whether I’m courageous enough, I don’t know, but that’s great for someone to be so courageous and tough.”

Would Serena be following in the footsteps of Harkleroad, U.S. swimmer Amanda Beard and volleyball player Gabrielle Reece and bare all for Playboy?

“I can’t say right now it’s in any thought of my mind to be in that mag. I do appreciate that mag. I think (Playboy owner) Hugh Hefner is a great businessman.”

“Maxim and FHM are called laddy magazines. We can be called a Dad magazine,” Beting Laygo Dolor, Playboy Philippines’ editor, told Reuters on Thursday.

“We are targeting a more mature market, Filipino men, 30 and above.”

“There will be no full frontal nudity.”

Mens’ magazines with risque photos are already sold in the Philippines, which despite being a largely Catholic country has a macho culture that encourages promiscuity.

Although rural areas are more conservative, Manila and other large cities have a relaxed attitude to sex.

Dolor, who describes himself as a “bad Catholic,” said the religion’s values had influenced the decision not to go for a raunchier look for the magazine.

“I don’t want to be ashamed to show it to my mother,” said the father of four. “I have daughters in their twenties. It’s something that I want them to also enjoy. I want them to be proud of their Dad.”

Founded in 1953, Playboy has some 20 local editions around the world that cater to local taste rather than simply exporting and translating its U.S. content.

The magazine will be sold across the Philippines at a cost of 199 pesos ($4.76) and 70 percent of the content will be local.

Playboy’s first edition in Indonesia in 2006 sparked protests although it had no nudity and less flesh visible in the issue than many other magazines on sale in the world’s most populous Muslim country. Its editor was cleared of distributing indecent pictures last year.

Dolor said he didn’t expect any uproar when his magazine hits the news stands on April 3.

“It’s supposed to be a very good read,” he said.