“I’ve gotten that over the last couple of years I’ve done a photo shoot anywhere it’s like ‘oh god, get back on the tennis court… what are you doing, go practise,” she told CBS Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb.
“You have to deal with that hate and not take it personally. It’s been a couple of years now, so I’ve learned to,” Bouchard said.
“There’s nothing wrong if you have success and it opens doors for other activities, like being in Sports Illustrated. Why not? I would be crazy not to take advantage of that.
“Why limit yourself? I’m still a tennis player, that is my number one priority. But if I do have a bit of time, here and thee, to do other things, why not?”
Bouchard, who made international headlines last week when she agreed to date a 20-year-old student after losing a bet on the Super Bowl football game, said on Sports Illustrated Now that she was “exhausted” after the photo shoot.
“I was very nervous. It was the first time I’ve posed topless, so that was different for me and that was the first shot done, at 7am, as soon as we went to the beach.
It was a case of ‘alright, no top, you are taking it off’, she said.
“I was like: ‘Okay’. Straight to. It actually helped my nerves because after that it was like ‘well, they have seen everything’. So I just became comfortable with the camera.”
She said it was “hard work, I was exhausted”.
“I did like seven bathing suit changes in a period of six hours and just constantly working much harder than what people think.”
Bouchard revealed to a TV interviewer that she took her mother to the photo shoot to “make sure nothing [was revealed]”.
Ranked world No 44, Bouchard is back preparing for next weekend’s Mexican Open, her first world tour event since the Australian Open in Melbourne last month.