Racket over cheeky iconic tennis image

Officials at the All England Lawn Tennis Club have been forced to apologise for using the image of Fiona Walker to advertise the event at Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

It prompted a volley of criticism and claims of sexism on social media after the club tweeted a photo of the iconic Athena poster. The tweet was sent out to promote the Powerful Posters exhibition.

But following complaints, the saucy shot was quickly deleted from the official Wimbledon account.

Tennis fan Kishore Sharma wrote: "Can't believe Wimbledon used this pic for upcoming 'Powerful Poster Exhibition'."

And a group of Roger Federer fans, who call themselves Fed's Angels, posted: "Come on Wimble! I thought you were the classy slam!"

Officials quickly put up a new post saying: "We apologise for offence caused by the Athena Tennis Girl Poster. It is a controversial piece of poster history but we do not endorse it."

But a Twitter user responded: "The poster doesn't show the history of tennis, the girl isn't a tennis player, you are just publicising sexualisation of females."

And despite the furore, the club said the image would remain in the exhibition.

A spokesman said they were aware the poster had 'generated debate on social media'.

"We decided to respond to some of the comments raised since we want to be clear that it is not a reflection of how we view women in tennis.

"The image in question is from a 1970s poster that was extremely popular and sold over two million copies worldwide. It is part of an historic exhibition about tennis posters dating back to 1893."

He said because of its fame not to include the image in the exhibition would be an 'oversight' as it was one of the most famous tennis posters of all time.

The woman in the picture, Fiona Walker, who hails from Oldswinford, Stourbridge,

was an 18-year-old art student when she posed for the photo in 1976 at Edgbaston Tennis Club. The iconic picture was later used for an Athena poster and went on to sell more than two million copies.

Mrs Walker refused to comment on the furore surrounding the image.

Other Twitter users said they did not believe the poster was controversial.

Sadie Hochfield said: "Ridiculous Wimbledon are getting stick for sharing iconic poster. Political correctness gone mad/don't pretend you've never seen it before!"

Sara Smith-Jones posted: "Wimbledon has nothing to apologise for – I think it's a great poster, is of its time in history."

Others merely saw the funny side.

One user tweeted: "I think Wimbledon were right to delete the Athena poster tweet. No-one should have to see that appalling 1970s court surface again."

The year-long exhibition will range from the earliest poster in the museum's collection, an 1893 advertisement for The Championships, through to the original artwork for this year's Grand Slam at the world famous venue in London SW19.