DALLAS, Apr 21, 2005/ FW/ --- It’s not your parents’ Lacoste anymore as tennis heartthrob and budding sports fashion icon Andy Roddick joins the house that tennis built.

Lacoste whose history reads like the annals of tennis itself has signed a 5-year partnership with the #4 seed at INDESIT ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) for the ongoing 2005 race.

Known for his charismatic personal style and armed with a 140mph serve, the young athlete has engaged a new generation of tennis fans and reenergized a sport that was looking for a new icon.

At 22, he has become the new face of tennis and icon of the Echo Boomer generation, the emerging force in U.S. demographics.

An Echo Boomer himself, Andy Roddick, together with fellow players Tatiana Golovin and Richard Gasquet, who are also part of the Lacoste tennis stable, will introduce the brand to the third generation of Lacoste fans.

It was in 1933, when René Lacoste, who was a tennis player himself, revolutionized men's sportswear, replacing the long-sleeved, starched classic tennis shirts, with what has now become the classic LACOSTE polo.

Seventy years later, with 800 boutiques around the world and 28 in the U.S., Lacoste has become synonymous with luxury sportswear for men, women and children.

Currently, the line is designed by Christophe Lemaire, who was named Creative Director of Lacoste in May 2001.

And if you’re wondering where the “alligator” logo came from, it started with a bet in 1927 when René Lacoste made a bet with the Captain of the French Davis Cup team concerning a suitcase made from alligator skin.

The team captain promised the formidable player that he would buy the suitcase for René Lacoste if he won every important match for the team. He did win all those matches, and since then, the young player became “The Crocodile.”

The logo was drawn by Robert George, a friend of René Lacoste, who in turn embroidered it on the blazer that he wore on the courts.

For more information about Lacoste, please log on: www.lacoste.com