Following such legendary celebrity underwear models as Mark Wahlberg and David Beckham, tennis champ Rafael Nadal has decided to take his clothes off.
The 24-year-old winner of two Wimbledons and five French opens strips to his skivvies as the latest model for Armani underwear. In a suggestive black-and-white television ad for Emporio Armani underwear and jeans photographed by Mert & Marcus, Nadal leans shirtless against a wall and lies on a sandy beach as water cascades over his rippling abs.
Despite the expert photography, Nadal's come-hither looks are a little clunky. He is clearly much better at tennis than he is as a sultry underwear model. Even so, he's likely to boost sales for Armani. When soccer star Beckham posed in similar ads for Armani in 2007, sales shot up as much as 30 percent.
And it may be hard to remember now, but before he was a respected actor in such movies as The Fighter, The Departed and Boogie Nights, Wahlberg was a tough-talking rapper known as Marky Mark who got a big career boost by posting in a Calvin Klein underwear ad shot by Herb Ritts in 1991.
See Rafael Nadal's new Emporio Armani ad:
