Tennis Girl



The Tennis Girl is a popular poster.[1]  It shows a young woman from behind walking towards the net of a tennis court with a tennis racquet in her right hand and her left hand reaching behind lifting her short tennis dress, showing she is not wearing any underwear.

The photograph was taken by Martin Elliott in September 1976 and features 18-year-old Fiona Butler[2] [3]  (now Walker[4] [5] ), his girlfriend at the time.[6]  The photo was taken at Birmingham University, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, using a borrowed dress, racquet and balls.[6] [7] [8] [9] ==History[edit] == The poster was first published as part of a calendar by Athena for the 1977 Silver Jubilee, the same year Virginia Wade achieved the Wimbledon ladies' singles title.[10]

The poster achieved widespread distribution when licensed to the poster shop Athena.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-mercury_10-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]  in 1978 where it sold for £2.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-scotsman_1-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]  It sold about 2 million copies<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-scotsman_1-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-telegraph_8-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  as a poster.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Butler said that she was not embarrassed about posing nor bitter that she did not receive any royalties from the photo.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-scotsman_1-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-iconic-photos_9-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Elliott died on 24 March 2010.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bbc_news_11-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  Butler now lives in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire. ==Parody<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Over the years the picture has been parodied by various people as diverse as Alan Carr and Kylie Minogue.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-iconic-photos_9-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">It was also featured in an advertisement for a tennis video game called Davis Cup World Tour for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12] <sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1em;"> [dead link]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Keith Lemon also featured his parody of it on his 2012 calendar.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">As an election promise for the 2012 Belgian elections, a 22 year old Belgian woman from Sint-Truiden promised to publish a nude photo shoot when receiving 1,000 votes. She released a picture of her in the Tennis Girl prior to the elections.