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A number of ATP stars took a short excursion off the court on Tuesday morning to visit the famous Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base in Chengdu.

And from the looks of things, a lot of fun was had by all.

Along for the ride were Chengdu Open third seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, South African Kevin Anderson, Argentinian Diego Schwartzman and the New Zealand-American doubles pair of Artem Sitak and Nicholas Monroe.

Quote of the day from the excursion goes to Dimitrov, who was clearly overwhelmed by the panda cuteness quotient. He turns to the camera after staring longingly at the animals and says “Why can’t we just get in there?”

Unfortunately, there is no petting of the pandas (sorry, Grigor), but clearly the players had an awesome time visiting them and watching them frolic in their habitat whilst they chomped on bamboo.

“We learned a lot,” said Dimitrov. “It’s amazing. I’ve never seen something like this. The reserve is unbelievable. I always wanted to see a panda. It’s a great experience.”

Chengdu has long been famous for its pandas, and Panda Bay (as the research base is known) was set up in 1987 in an effort to conserve the population.

“It’s amazing to see all those little ones and some of the big ones. It’s pretty rare to do that in the middle of a tournament, but we all enjoyed it a lot,” said Dimitrov.

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