It was not the kind of weather in which Ashley Harkleroad, the American, would have wanted to undertake a reprise of her photo shoot for Playboy, the first time a tennis player has agreed to pose naked for the magazine. Brass monkeys were stalking the boulevards of the French capital yesterday.

Harkleroad, defeated by Serena Williams in the first round of the French Open on Sunday, has been front-page news before, but that was for her wedding to Alex Bogomolov Jr, her fellow pro, at the age of 19, in a marriage that lasted less than two years. Her proclamation yesterday - that she had been recovering from an operation to remove a cyst from her right ovary, when a call came through with a very revealing offer - momentarily took one's mind off forehands and backhands.

“I thought, ‘well I'm not really doing anything,' so I considered it and it was something that I wanted to do,” the 23-year-old from Georgia, ranked No 61 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, said. “I am proud of my body. I was representing a female athlete's body.” We will have to wait for the August issue to see the final results.

The next time we shall see Harkleroad in the flesh will be in England, either in Birmingham or Eastbourne for the women's tournaments on grass that are played before Wimbledon.

There had been time before the mid-afternoon clouds had drawn in and the courts were covered for Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic to demonstrate that having a high profile is no protection against first-round butterflies. Williams struggled to impose her game on Tzipora Obziler, a slip of a girl from Israel, and needed three sets to prevail 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Jankovic exchanged six breaks of serve in the opening set with Monica Niculescu, of Romania, who was in the main draw as a lucky loser from qualifying.

It took the Serbian 91 minutes to wear Niculescu down, 7-6, 6-2, confessing that she had been confused by too many drop shots. Niculescu is obviously a fan of Andy Murray.

The British No1's brother, Jamie, has confirmed that he has requested a wild card into the Artois Championships and Wimbledon, although he does not possess a singles ranking. The event organisers at the Queen's Club, West London, have already given the first four of their five wild cards and will not make a decision on the fifth until late next week.

The LTA makes its recommendations to the All England Club and had set a world ranking cut-off of No 250 to guarantee the opportunity of a place in the main draw. The names of Jamie Baker, who is recovering well from a blood condition, Alex Bogdanovic and Josh Goodall have been put forward by the governing body. Murray has asked for one off his own back.