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Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out that one of the ‘glamour girls’ of tennis had declined an offer to appear in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

Yes that’s declined – as in ‘did not accept.’

Ana Ivanovic is breathtaking in a double-page spread just inside the cover of the latest Swimsuit issue.

She joins a list of players, who have posed for SI in various types of bathing attire, that includes Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Daniela Hantuchova, Maria Kirilenko, Tatiana Golovin and – drum roll – Anna Kournikova.

There are not big bucks to be made directly from appearing in the SI Swimsuit issue, so it would not be a huge financial sacrifice to decline the offer. Sure the exposure is enormous but maybe it would be nice if a player like Ivanovic thought about her peers on the tour, players who have worked just as hard as her to achieve success in pro tennis but who will not be asked to pose by SI because they were blessed with her good looks. Without mentioning names, there a few of the very best players in the game today, players who have won multiple Grand Slam titles, who never in a million years would be invited to appear in the SI swimsuit issue.

You have to wonder how they feel about the Ivanovics of the world, whether they think being in SI is a bit much. Surely there is an element of gilding the lily. On top of all the money the good-looking players earn in endorsements – and we know Ivanovic has just signed a ‘lifetime deal’ with adidas and that Sharapova pulls in more than $20 million a year – do these players really have to go that step further and show off their scantily-clad bodies in the SI swimsuit issue?

It would be understandable if the less attractive players felt SI’s ‘tennis models’ are kind of rubbing their faces in it. And some tennis fans may feel sympathy for the less gorgeous players not born with the silver spoon of beauty in their mouths.

Of course, the opposite viewpoint would simply be, "if you've got it, flaunt it."

Ivanovic is now experiencing a serious crisis of confidence on her serve, and there’s a fair chance, even at age 22, she will never return to the glory she attained in winning the 2008 French Open and reaching the No. 1 ranking shortly thereafter.

She will have a lot of attention focused on her as she struggles, and hers will not be an easy problem to solve. But some people may have a little less sympathy because she, and the people around her, have been so willing to cash in on her attractive image. Sure, lying in a bed of pink tennis balls wearing a pink two-piece bathing suit produces a very pretty/sexy picture, but how about showing she can still hit a serve or a forehand under pressure – something that was sadly lacking in her loses to Gisela Dulko at the Australian Open and to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alisa Kleybanova in Fed Cup in her native Belgrade last weekend.

This reporter observed Ivanovic up close last summer making an appearance for Rolex during the Rogers Cup in Toronto, and she could not have been more charming, unaffected and just plain nice. So, is lying in that bed of pink tennis balls or, in another pose with a “come hither” look on her face in a bikini with her lower body wrapped in a tennis net – is that what Ana Ivanovic is really all about?

The WTA Tour is also complicit in exploiting its female players.

In December, on its official website, there was a prominent piece on the home page encouraging readers to “Vote for Ana & Maria Now!” That would be Ivanovic and Sharapova. As the Tennisphilia website described it, the WTA Tour website, “is urging visitors to vote for Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic in AskMen.com’s 2010 edition of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women. The said article explains that AskMen.com has ‘been compiling the Most Desirable Women list since 2001’ and that the highest ever rank for a tennis player in the compilation was way back in 2006 when Sharapova received the ‘honor’ of placing in the top 31. The article concludes by providing a link to the AskMen.com website and asking visitors to ‘push Sharapova or Ivanovic into the Top 30.’”

It’s easy to discern a pattern here and to simply concede, “that’s just the way things are.” It’s also easy to wonder what other players thought about it, and to call it what it was – shameless.