The racket sport that is hugely popular in Spain and Argentina, is currently played by more than 30 million people worldwide
Andy Murray and Anthony Joshua are already on board, and now the rest of the world is being encouraged to get up to speed with padel – the world’s fastest growing participation sport.
The racket sport that is hugely popular in Spain and Argentina, is currently played by more than 30 million people worldwide, and in central London, a new competition known as the Hexagon World Series could see that grow even faster.
Played in a team format, the comeptition was launched in conjunction with sports and entertainment agency 54, and will succeed the Hexagon Cup, a team competition featuring some of the world’s best players led by celebrities like Murray, Joshua and Sergio Aguero.
It will begin in 2026 with three or four events across the globe and has received the full backing of the international padel federation (FIP).
And while the elite end of the sport is dominated by two countries – Spain and Argentina make up the vast majority of the world’s top 100 – the hope is that the international nature of the teams in the Hexagon World Series, can give the sport a more global appeal to spectators.
Hexagon Cup founder Enrique Buenaventura compared it to Formula 1, explaining: “I have been in the UK for the last 12 years, it is growing as a participation sport but it’s very difficult for the UK people to follow Premier Padel (the global padel tour) because there is no UK professional competing.
“But suddenly you have a UK team in the Hexagon Cup, it’s like Formula 1, you have Ferrari, who are the Italian team and have all the followers from Italy, but the drivers can be Spanish and French.
“By having the Advantage Team with Andy Murray and Anthony Joshua, you bring the fans to follow those teams and probably watch those players.
“That will attract the grassroots and players willing to be professionals. I think that will create those new future stars from different countries. It will take time but it is something we all have in mind.”
The other notable aspect about the new Hexagon World Series is that the teams will be made up of two men and two women, whose points all count towards the overall scores.
As a result, it becomes a truly gender-equal event where each team has to place an equal emphasis on their men’s and women’s matches.
For 54’s chief operating officer Gary Davidson, that is only right for a sport that is among the most evenly played between men and women.
He said: “I come primarily from golf, where you have 8% participation is female, if you’re lucky. In padel 47% were female in the FIP report. That is unbelievable and it’s a huge opportunity. It’s important for us to put men and women on equal footing.
“That comes in two ways. One, by having a single show court, so there will never be a conversation about the ladies playing in a smaller arena. And then the results are genuinely impacted by each other. The men will cheer on the women, the women will cheer on the men, because their prize money is, depends on their team. I’m not sure there is another sport that properly does that.”