Search icon

Sport

23rd Mar 2017

Who knew an iguana could cause such chaos at the tennis?

Brought proceedings to a halt

Ben Kiely

This iguana is a star in the making.

Any unwanted invader at a sports event is a nuisance, but there’s something so entertaining about another species running amok while professional athletes desperately try to earn their crust.

Dogs are great and all, squirrels and birds can have their moments, but apparently, reptiles are where it’s at when it comes to derailing games, as we saw at the Miami Open tennis tournament this week.

An iguana completely stole the show during the game between Tommy Haas and Jiri Vesely. With the score level at 3-3 in the final set, he made an entrance to remember and brought everything to a halt.

It perched itself on the scoreboard and was quite content with its location until officials tried to corral the creature with a towel, a broom and a sack. Unfortunately, their MacGyver-like efforts fell short and only inspired the iguana to put on a performance for the crowd.

The iguana was eventually captured and removed to thunderous applause from the crowd, but not before featuring in a phenomenal selfie snapped by Haas.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BR9Taj8A90G/