Alisha Lehmann reveals the gift she received from tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas after Instagram exchange

Aston Villa footballer Alisha Lehmann has revealed she received a gift of a tennis racket from Stefanos Tsitsipas.

A couple of weeks ago after Lehmann posted a video onto social media of her playing tennis, she received a cheeky request from Tsitsipas' brother Pedro.

The 22-year-old younger brother of the world ranked no.3 star asked Lehmann – who has 12 million followers on Instagram – “let’s play Mixed [sic]?” with a tennis ball emoji. “Let’s go,” she replied.

Now it seems the Tsitsipas family are following through with their request, as Lehmann showed off a new racket, which had apparently been a gift from Stefanos.

Alisha Lehmann got a signed racket from @steftsitsipas ⚽🎾🤜🏻🤛🏻 pic.twitter.com/QhjKDrDUsQ

— Tennis Handshakes (@TennisHandshake) March 4, 2023

The video showed the Swiss international in the Aston Villa dressing room, wearing Villa training kit, keeping a tennis ball up with her new gift.

She posted it along with the caption: "I'm ready for the game. Thank you @StefanosTsitsipas98".

Whether this unlikely cross-sport clash ever comes to fruition remains to be seen, although what seems certain is that the Tsitsipas brothers have gained a new friend in Lehmann.

The 24-year-old recently spoke about her enormous social media following and how she wants to grow awareness of the women's game.

“I don’t think you can compare like 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," she said.

“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.”