Ashley Harkleroad has just pulled off a tennis first — and one that has some people scratching their heads.  In the August issue of Playboy there is Ashley wearing a smile, a little make-up and not much else. But the 23-year-old explains in an exclusive interview with Mark Winters for Tennis Week why her decision to pose nude represents a triumph for her and she hopes will send a message to others.

Ashley Harkleroad admits that doing the Playboy shoot was a huge step — but not because of any modesty issues. The Georgia-born star says her years on the Tour cured her of modesty a long time back.

"This issue is for the Olympics and after looking at the pictures of Amanda Beard (a swimmer) and Gabrielle Reece, (a volleyball player), I decided to do it," Ashley said.

No, the big step for Ashley is coming to terms with suffering from  athletic bulimia.

"I remember seeing my picture in an Australian magazine after I played Venus (Williams in 2004) and thinking how fat I looked," she said. "When I was 16 and 17, people would always say that I looked like I’d lost weight. In those days, I could eat whatever I wanted. When I got older, my body started to change and I began to constantly think about calories."

Body image is a hot button topic for various teenage tennis players.

"I started the Zone Diet and began taking a product to make my metabolism faster," Ashley admitted. "I became addicted to laxatives. Sometimes before a match I would sit in the steam room for an hour just so I would look good on the court. I was in denial about my problem."

Having turned pro in June 2000 and having modeled for Nike at 15 and 16, she was in the public eye constantly and the trouble remained hidden.

"I wasn’t comfortable talking about it," she said. In time, she began pulling out of tournaments. Some of those on the scene were under the impression that she was suffering from burnout. In ’04, she finally called a hotline for players, "but it didn’t work out."

Harkleroad stopped playing and spent nine months living in Chattanooga with fellow pro Alex Bogomolov, Jr. then her boyfriend and soon-to-be-husband, (They were married December 4, 2004 and divorced in ’06.), teaching tennis at Manker Patten Tennis Club.

"I became an out-patient at a clinic and would go to therapy for my eating disorder twice a week," she said. "Finally, I got the tools I needed to do it myself. I had to fight through it. I wasn’t completely (and I will never be completely) over it when I started to play again."

When she returned to the tour, it was with a better understanding of who she is.

"I’m an only child who trained to be a tennis professional since I was four," she said. "Also, I’m a ‘pleaser’. I always have been. We (my mother and father) all grew up together in tennis. I wanted to make everyone happy, and I wasn’t. There was so much pressure playing for my parents, agent and contracts. Marriage helped some things in my life. My parents realized they had to let go."

The "pleaser-bulimia" paradigm is obvious even for those who don’t claim to be amateur psychologists. Harkleroad said. "I was a ‘visor down’ player. I didn’t like the attention. At the time, I didn’t feel I could give too much away. Now that it’s out, I have balance and it’s a blessing. On tour you have to be confident with yourself."

Two years ago Ashley hooked up with Chuck Adams, a former pro, who is now both her coach and her fiancé and he has helped her build confidence in herself…including encouraging her to do the Playboy shoot.

As a junior, Harkleroad was the Girls’ 18 Easter Bowl winner at 14, and a 2002 Roland Garros Junior Girls’ finalist. The year before, she was the Wimbledon Junior Girls’ doubles champion with Gisela Dulko of Argentina, and a singles semifinalist in the junior events at Australia and Roland Garros.

"She lost to (Daniela) Hantuchova at the Australia Open in 2006, and all the demons came out," Adams recalled. "With all the struggle, she had to make up her mind. She had to come to me. I could then help her get through the demons, and help change her mind-set so that she could say ‘I want to do this’."

Ashley described the three-day photo shoot for Playboy as "grueling."

It took place at houses in Pacific Palisades, Palos Verdes and at the Playboy mansion and wasn’t made any easier because just days earlier, at the Sony-Ericsson in Miami, she had been hospitalized after an ovarian cyst burst and she had to have emergency surgery.

With the attention the shoot will bring, she would like to send a message  to those who have eating issues. "I’m now comfortable with myself and want to help people who have the same disorder. I didn’t talk about it because there was no one to talk to."

Ashley  adds:  "Had I grown up in Los Angeles, dealing with the eating problem wouldn’t have been a big deal. Coming from a small town in the south, this sort of thing isn’t discussed." She added, "I would like to do more modeling, do print work. In time, I may want to try to sing. The Judd’s are a favorite and my whole family is in to singing Country Western."