Camila Giorgi had an interesting year last year, to say the least. She retired out of the blue to reportedly pursue a full-time career as a lingerie model.

Then came the reports that she had retired because she owed taxes to the Italian authorities. Stories about rent not paid and stolen furniture followed.

Months later Camila addressed the rumors she called inaccurate. She hadn’t retired because of taxes or any other rumors floating around at the time.

She hung up her racket to pursue her dreams. She was worn out from the sport of tennis. It was time to give tennis up for the world of modeling.

That was until this week when the former tennis player turned lingerie model popped up as a courtside reporter at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.

Camila Giorgi is inspiring a new generation of dual-threat athletes/models

This is a smart move by the sport of tennis. Camila’s a model with more than 700k Instagram followers. She doesn’t want to hit the court anymore and compete, but she can still be involved in the game.

A following that large is going to get some attention and put asses in the seats and eyeballs on the sport. For instance, who but the hardcore tennis fans knew that the Argentina Open was taking place this week?

The answer is not a lot. But now, you throw a “retired tennis player turned lingerie model is covering the event” headline out there and suddenly a lot more people are at least aware and that’s a start.

This is how other dual-threat athletes/models decide to pick up a racket. Several years ago now, we thought Camila had a chance to be the next Maria Sharapova.

Did she reach those heights? Maybe not, but she put in the effort. That’s how you bridge the gap.

With any luck, she’ll inspire the next Camila Giorgi who is out there tearing it up right now waiting to be discovered. Then we’ll have the next Maria Sharapova-like force to contend with.