Raccoons have broken into the US Open to watch some of the world's best tennis alongside fans in New York
- The 2022 US Open — America's lone Grand Slam tournament — is currently underway in New York City.
- Raccoons have been spotted hanging out at the stadiums alongside tennis fans in The Big Apple.
More fans than ever before have flocked to Flushing Meadows for the 2022 US Open.
But some unexpected spectators have also been spotted among the crowd at the New York City Grand Slam.
Raccoons — yes, trash pandas — have infiltrated one of the year's most prestigious tournaments to watch some world-class tennis and scavenge from some of the most trendy food vendors in The Big Apple. Perhaps most astounding of all, they've skipped out on paying the exorbitant ticket prices that have become a signature of the star-studded event.
WhatIsNewYork — an Instagram account devoted to documenting New York City "through the eyes of NYers" for its more than 1.4 million followers — shared a clip of a seemingly peaceful raccoon yawning and nestling under the stands mid-match at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
"Just giving tickets to anyone these days? #whatisnewyork," the caption read, along with an attribution for the owner of the video, @rnicol02:
This isn't the first time trash pandas — as the North American mammals were once dubbed on Reddit — have been spotted on the historic grounds in Queens. In 2020, AFP New York reporter Peter Hutchison posted a photo on Twitter of "a raccoon hanging out in Arthur Ashe Stadium."
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the annual tournament to go on without fans in the stands that year, the raccoons were free to wander wherever they pleased. They made quite a few appearances on television screens around the world as a result.
With the massive stainless steel globe setting the scene, a pair of furry fans were caught crawling across a pathway near the South Gate of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center just one day after Hutchinson spotted a raccoon inside Arthur Ashe.
Shortly after that, ESPN's Pilar Pérez saw a raccoon scurry under the covered seats at one of the grounds' three stadiums:
And folks at home saw the little critters skitter across the stands while watching a match on ESPN:
Someone even took the time to celebrate the raccoons' big moment by creating a Twitter account in their honor called @USOpenRaccoons. The bio of its profile suggests that the account belongs to "Roddick and Becker, two trash pandas who live behind a Heineken cart near Court 11 at the US Open."
It's unclear how many raccoons are on hand for this year's tournament, or whether the US Open has attempted to drive the trash pandas out of the stadiums now that fans are back in the stands. Regardless, it's safe to say the internet will be ready to report any Flushing Meadows trash panda sightings during the final week of this year's tournament.