I was that cheeky tennis girl says 52-year-old mother of three



Although we have never been introduced, many of us know this lady a little better than we should.

Her cheekiest of poses on a sunny tennis court way back in the 1970s remains one of the world’s best selling posters.

Now, after more than 30 years and countless refusals to pose again, Fiona Walker has decided to show her face for the first time.

Court on Canvas: Fiona Walker poses next to the iconic Athena poster she appeared in in 1976

Aged 52 and married to a wealthy businessman, she has no regrets about her moment in the spotlight – even though she has never earned a penny from it.

She is not even a tennis fan, confessing to never liking the game.

Mrs Walker was an 18-year-old art student called Fiona Butler when she agreed to pose for her then boyfriend, an ambitious young photographer called Martin Elliott.

With a borrowed sports dress and racket and wearing her father’s white plimsolls (and of course very little else) she and Elliott created one of the most iconic images of the 1970s.

The shot was taken at the now defunct Birmingham University courts at Edgbaston on a hazy September afternoon in 1976. Chewed tennis balls belonging to her dog were scattered across the court.

Elliott went on to sell the image rights to Athena but retained the copyright, earning him an estimated £250,000 in royalty payments. Two million copies were sold worldwide.

Timeless image: A teenage boy's bedroom was not complete without the poster in the Seventies

Now a mother of three, who works as an illustrator, Mrs Walker is philosophical about not being paid for her part, saying she remains ‘incredibly proud’ of her pose.

‘I am the worst person ever when it comes to money. To be honest, it didn’t bother me at the time, and once it became successful the time had passed,’ she said.

‘My mother has a very faded copy in what used to be my father’s study. I just have it in the form of a very small postcard.

‘I think it’s the light that makes it so appealing. It never ceases to make me smile when I see it. My children have told their friends that I was the girl in the poster, but most people don’t believe it.

No quite as cheeky: Fiona puts her tennis whites back on in 1980

‘I’ve never gone out of my way to court attention, and have declined being photographed publicly since then, because I am quite a private person.’

So what made her decide it was time to reveal herself now? Mrs Walker is helping to promote an exhibition on lawn tennis as a subject in art, which will be held at Birmingham’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts this summer. She believes her picture has earned ‘a place in the history of tennis’.

Elliott, who died last year at 63, would have been thrilled at the legacy. She said: ‘I think Martin would be very proud of the fact that his picture is in the exhibition.’