While it’s been well documented how much celebrities around the world love padel, the unique Hexagon Cup tournament — which kicks off tomorrow in Madrid — is proof positive of their level of commitment to the sport, both from a branding and financial standpoint.
In fact, despite this being the inaugural run of the unique team-based tournament, tennis legends Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, international soccer star Robert Lewandowski, and acclaimed actress, director, entrepreneur, and activist Eva Longoria, have all eagerly committed to back teams competing the Hexagon Cup, which boats a one million euro prize pool.
Of the unique, first-of-its-kind competition, the tournament’s organizers say:
“Under the motto ‘For the Fans. For the Players. For the Game’ this innovative competition was born with the ambition of offering a new and disruptive approach. To do this, it has designed a completely new format in which six teams are made up of three couples, male, female, and ‘Next Gen’ stars of the future, who compete for a share of a one-million euro prize fund.
The team’s pairs, divided into two qualifying groups, compete in a series of exciting head-to-head qualifying matches. Only the top two pairs from each group will advance to the Semi Finals (February 3) and the Finals (February 4), where the inaugural Hexagon Cup champions will be crowned.”
Qualifying matches kick off tomorrow, Wednesday, January 31 at 10:00 am Madrid-time with the Next Gen competition. These games will be played in the Fan Zone of the Madrid Arena. The men’s and women’s matches then start at 3:00pm in the Madrid Arena. The matches are played in best of three sets. If there is a third set, a super tiebreak will be played to decide the winner of the match.
While the Hexagon Cup has made big headlines across the world for securing some major broadcasting deals ahead of its inaugural run, padel enthusiasts here in the U.S. will have to work a bit harder to catch the action.
That’s because despite securing broadcast agreements that will reach 700 million households across 190-plus countries, the only way to watch the event in the U.S. will be through ESPN+, which will be live-streaming both the semi-finals and finals next weekend.
But given the level of talent that will be competing in this tournament — including global padel superstars like: Arturo Coello, Martin Di Nenno, Agustin Tapia, Federico Chingotto, Ariana Sanchez, Paula Josemaria, Delfina Brea, and Alejandra Salazar, among many others — it will undoubtedly be well worth the effort to tune in.
