Tennis star who became Playboy model set for | Sports News

Ashley Harkleroad constructed a profession that not often adopted a typical path, from the WTA Tour to the pages of Playboy to a decade in tv and past.

Now, at 40, the previous tennis skilled is dealing with one other vital chapter as her husband of more than 16 years has filed for legal separation.

Chuck Adams, 54, submitted court docket paperwork on April 14 citing irreconcilable variations as the rationale behind the break up, in keeping with data obtained by TMZ Sports. The couple had been married since September 2009, having tied the knot a 12 months after Harkleroad made sporting historical past by turning into the primary energetic tennis skilled to pose for Playboy. It comes after one tennis star jokingly blamed his girlfriend after shedding to Ben Shelton.

The submitting brings to an finish one of tennis’s more distinguished partnerships, each on and off the court docket, provided that Adams had at one level served as Harkleroad’s coach.

As half of the separation submitting, Adams is in search of joint custody of their two youngsters: son Charlie, 17, a 6-foot basketball guard within the class of 2028, and daughter Cissy, 15, who is a Fila-sponsored tennis participant. Physical custody would go to Harkleroad, with Adams receiving visitation rights.

He has additionally requested that the court docket’s capability to award spousal assist to Harkleroad be terminated, and famous that the true nature and extent of his present property and money owed are usually not but totally established, asking to amend the petition as soon as these particulars are sorted out.

Harkleroad’s story has been one of the more colourful within the sport’s latest historical past. She turned skilled in 2000 and constructed a strong profession, reaching a career-high rating of No. 39 on the earth in June 2003.

She gained eight singles titles and competed in any respect 4 Grand Slams, reaching the quarterfinals in doubles at each the Australian Open and French Open. She retired in 2012 and subsequently spent 9 years as a commentator and analyst for the Tennis Channel.

It was her 2008 Playboy shoot, nonetheless, that generated her broadest mainstream consideration. The resolution, she defined on the time, got here during a period of restoration from surgical procedure to take away an ovarian cyst.

“I was just laying there for three weeks, and an offer came to me,” she instructed Reuters. “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.” She added: “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.”

Adams additionally had a profession in skilled tennis, incomes one singles title in Seoul in 1993 and ending his enjoying days in 1997 with an total document of 83 wins and 93 losses.

He went on to teach Harkleroad during her profession. Harkleroad was beforehand married to fellow tennis skilled Alex Bogomolov Jr. earlier than she and Adams wed.