Hexagon World Series 2027: Madrid, Abu Dhabi and a Super Tie-Break Era

Team padel is going global. At a launch event at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental in Abu Dhabi, the organisers of the Hexagon World Series presented their first full international season: four events on three continents in 2027, eight franchises and a scoring format that throws out traditional games and sets altogether.

The series grew out of the Hexagon Cup, the team event that has been held in Madrid since 2024. It is now the first professional team circuit officially sanctioned by the International Padel Federation (FIP), which added it to its official calendar in 2026. According to Padel Addict, the 2026 edition in Madrid drew more than 37,000 spectators.

Four stops, one world champion

The 2027 season opens where the project was born. The GENERALI Hexagon Cup Madrid will be played at the Caja Mágica from 21 to 24 January 2027. Next comes a stop in North America in March and one in Scandinavia in June, with host cities for both still to be announced. The season ends in Abu Dhabi from 21 to 24 October 2027, where the first overall Hexagon World Series champion will be crowned.

Results across all four events feed into a season-long standings table. The winner of each event earns 25 points, the runner-up 18 and third place 15, while positions four to eight receive 12, 9, 6, 3 and 0 points.

Celebrity owners and a new home team

Seven of the eight franchises have been confirmed, with the eighth to be revealed later:

AD/vantage Padel Team, the 2024 and 2026 champions, backed by Andy Murray, Anthony Joshua, Dani Vallverdú and Arran Yentob; KRÜ Padel by Taktika, the 2025 winners led by Sergio "Kun" Agüero; ElevenEleven Team USA, linked to Eva Longoria; the Rafa Nadal Academy Team; Team Bella Puerto Rico with María Esteve and Carlos López-Lay; X Padel, backed by Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly and Loïc Féry; and the newcomer Dalma Team, a franchise based in the United Arab Emirates that will represent Abu Dhabi throughout the year.

Every team fields one men's pair and one women's pair. Both count equally in the standings, and the FIP says prize money is equal for male and female players.

Goodbye sets, hello super tie-breaks

The biggest change is how matches are scored. Instead of sets, each match is played as the best of five super tie-breaks. The first four are played to 10 points. If the score reaches 2-2, a fifth tie-break to 6 points decides the match. A Star Point settles any tie-break that reaches 10-10.

At each event the eight teams are split into two groups of four. The aim is a shorter, faster product for television and arenas.

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Co-founder Enrique Buenaventura said that "what started in Madrid has grown into an international project", with the aim to "build a truly global team padel competition". Fellow co-founder Gary Davidson said the series wants to "revolutionise the way fans experience padel". FIP president Luigi Carraro called the expansion "another important step in the global development of padel". Speaking at the launch, Buenaventura also compared the project to Formula E, Padel Spain reported.

What it means for the calendar

The Hexagon World Series has to find room in a calendar already packed with Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour. Its dates show how. The Madrid opener takes place in late January, before the main tour gets going. The Abu Dhabi finale will be played almost exactly a year after this week's launch, at the point in the season when the Gulf swing is usually under way. Next week's Premier Padel Kuwait Major (26–31 October) is the latest example of that swing.

The open questions now are the North American and Scandinavian host cities, the identity of the eighth franchise and the player rosters. Those announcements will show how many of the tour's top names sign up for team padel in 2027.