Agnieszka Radwanska defends 'nude photo-shoot'

Agnieszka Radwanska has responded to the controversy about her nude photo shoot for ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue, claiming that the pictures were in good taste.

The Polish tennis star's shoot, in which she can be seen sitting naked in a lawn chair by a pool filled with tennis balls, saw her dropped by a Catholic youth movement, last week, News24.com reported.

The young Catholics, from the group known as Krucjata Mlodych (Youth Crusade), have claimed that the shoot was an "immoral behaviour".

However, world number four Radwanska insisted the pictures were a celebration of the "beauty of the bodies of the best athletes in the world."

In a statement published on her Facebook page, she wrote that her tennis colleagues Serena Williams, Daniela Hantuchova and Vera Zvonareva have all participated in the past, and that the pictures are certainly not meant to cause offense and to brand them as immoral clearly does not take into account the context of the magazine.

The 24-year-old added that the article, which does not contain any explicit imagery, is all about how she train extremely hard to keep she body in shape.

Radwanska said that she agreed to participate to help encourage young people, and especially girls, to exercise, stay in shape and be healthy and neither she nor any of the other athletes were paid.