Tennis influencers have started to build a presence on social media platforms in recent years and soccer star Alisha Lehmann has set tongues wagging after making an appearance on court.

Paige Spiranac has long been established as one of the biggest social media influencers in golf and Rachel Stuhlmann has attracted a big social media following after following her lead in tennis.

Now Aston Villa and Switzerland footballer Lehmann has tried her luck at tennis, after posting images that caught the eye of plenty of her admirers.

One of those was the younger brother of world No 3 Stefanos Tsitipias, with Petros quick to respond to Lehmann’s appearance on Instagram with an offer to form what could be a must-watch mixed doubles team.

Alisha responded with a message of “let’s go” to his offer, but we shouldn’t get too excited about the duo teaming up at the top level of the game.

A glance at the way Lehmann was holding the tennis racket in the Instagram images posted on an account that has nearly 12 million followers, it is safe to suggest she is at the formative stages of her tennis story.

Yet it is clear that one of the most popular players in women’s football enjoyed her time in court, with the post attracting 425k likes.

Lehmann’s glamorous posts on Instagram have led some to suggest she is more about image than sport, but she told talkSPORT that he focus is on growing women’s football on and off the pitch.

“I’m a proper footballer. I work hard every day. I want to be the best version of myself in football and that’s my first priority in life,” she stated.

“I think sometimes it’s a bit hard because obviously I play like I train every day, like everyone else, like I play every weekend and sometimes it’s hard because they make a picture of you.

“Some people just see Instagram and social media and don’t even know I actually play football.

“When I don’t post a football picture for a week, people say, ‘oh she doesn’t even play’.

“It’s not something where I wake up every day and think, oh my God, I have so many followers.

“It’s more that it’s really nice, the support and everything and it’s also a big opportunity.

“I would like to show the world that women can actually do it in football and you don’t need to just to be normal.

“You can also be a bit crazy, just be you, and use your personality to show the world who you are.”

She is also keen to close the popularity gap between women’s and men’s football as she added:

“I don’t think you can compare anything between women’s and men’s football because it’s just so different how people look at us and how people look at them.

“It’s just not the same. Women’s football is always second class. I don’t think you’ll ever be first class because I think a lot of people still think that men’s football is the first priority.

“They don’t think about women’s football and I think that’s a big problem. Now social media is really helpful because people actually see, oh, we play football, we can play football.”

Lehmann’s huge popularity has seen companies rushing to endorse her and she released her first calendar for 2023, which has proved to be a big hit with her fans.

It remains to be seen whether we will see Lehmann on a tennis court alongside the younger of the Tsitipias brothers any time soon, but her Instagram fans will doubtless jump at the chance to watch her in a second sport.

The article Alisha Lehmann given tempting offer as she tries her luck on a tennis court appeared first on Tennis365.com.