Enrique Buenaventurafounder of the Hexagon Cupa padel team competition of which MARCA is the official newspaper, has visited the newspaper’s editorial office to assess what he expects from the second edition of a groundbreaking format that was a success at its debut and that takes on new challenges for 2025. It will be held at the Madrid Arena from January 29 to February 2.
ASK. What assessment did you make of the Hexagon Cup 2024? I don’t know if it surprised them, if it was what they expected…
ANSWER. Well, the truth is that it exceeded expectations. Obviously, when you start a project you always imagine it in one way and the truth is that it came true. We ended up super happy, both with the reception from the players, the brands, the public and how everything turned out. After five days we were delighted.
Q. How complicated is it to create an event of these characteristics with all the sponsors behind it, with what it means to bring the best players in the world and be in a venue as iconic as the Madrid Arena?
R. It is setting up a project from scratch. I love it. In fact, I think it is the third sports project in which I am from scratch and it is what I like the most, but it is exhausting. You have to start everything from minute zero, both with the people you choose to develop it with you, with the partners, with the collaborators, with the partners you want to leave with.
The example is with you, with MARCA, of course. There are so many who see the opportunity and want to join that choosing them well is essential. And then, well, a sport like padel that was growing, is growing so much now and in which there were many other sporting events at that time such as World Padel Tour or Premier Padel to see who was the dominant tour… Well, suddenly Us appearing there caught many by surprise and was difficult. Then you have to convince players, convince the International Federation or the Spanish Federation that we were something credible and good for the sport… and on top of that you convince them with an idea and a role. Now, I always say that the most difficult year is the second, that you have to consolidate what you have done.
We wanted to do a team game in which an English team, as happened last year, would have the opportunity to win,
Enrique Buenaventura
Q. Paddle tennis is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, but what is different about the Hexagon Cup?
R. The main difference is the team format. There is the main tour, Premier Padel, which they are also doing phenomenally with the support of the International Federation and in which all the couples are going to participate in the most traditional way, so to speak, and we are becoming the championship for private teams, so to speak, official. Now there was the World Cup, for example, but we wanted to do a team event in which an English team, as happened last year, would have the opportunity to win, as happens in Formula 1, where you have Ferrari, which is clearly Italian but which has a Spanish driver and a Monegasque driver. Continuing with the English team that won last year, Andy Murray’s AD/vantage Padel Team, with players like Juan Tello or Delfi Brea, we want people to say “hey, well, I’m going to watch the Hexagon Cup, which has a team English”.
Q. Is it very difficult to recruit great personalities from sports, film or television so that, with their teams, they can fully participate in the Hexagon Cup?
R. It is becoming very fashionable for big sports celebrities to own soccer teams, in the United States it is something that is very fashionable, especially among athletes who are about to retire to somehow give continuity to their image, to their brand, and give their sponsors opportunities to continue being linked to that athlete in some competition. They also like padel and they practice it, and it’s not just happening in Spain, it’s happening everywhere, it’s happening in many places. You contact them through one or the other. You reach out to them and say “Hey, we’re setting this up. I know you really like paddle tennis…” and so on. It happened with Murray, who is investing a lot in paddle tennis in the United Kingdom. Well, we came to him and he thought it was a fantastic idea.
Enrique Buenaventura, during the interview at MARCA.CHEMA REY (BRAND)
Q. What plans does the Hexagon Cup have in the short-medium term at an international level? Are you open to doing some kind of testing or expansion?
R. Not at the moment. Obviously. For us Madrid is the capital of padel. It is one of the few cities that can host two major events like Premier Padel and ours, but we are open to moving the Hexagon Cup in the future. I think that this year and surely next year we will be in Madrid and then the idea is to make it more international either because there are more events or because the Hexagon Cup simply moves to another city.
This year and surely next year we will be in Madrid and then the idea is to make it more international
Enrique Buenaventura
But at the moment, obviously in Madrid the public supports the sport a lot, the city itself supports paddle tennis a lot, so we are not in the best place to be, but we do not rule out being able to move and be more international as well. Even with the relationship we have with the International Federation, even with Premier Padel, there will be conversations that we will have with them in the future to see where we can support in some way so that the sport grows not only in Spain, but in many others. countries.
Q. You said that the 2024 valuation was quite good, but if you had to say any important improvement for 2025… What would it be?
R. There is one thing that we failed in the first year or that we didn’t do so well and that is explaining how the team format works, because obviously it is very different from what people are used to seeing and this year we want to put a lot of emphasis on how it works, how a team is divided, the categories, how many points they add per victory, etc. I make the analogy again with Formula 1. Verstappen wins the Drivers’ World Championship, but then Red Bull may not win the Teams’ World Championship, for example. This is a bit the same and I think we needed to explain it better, for people to understand it because many people asked and were not very clear about it. Now in the next three or four months we are going to make a lot of effort in networks, in marketing and so on so that people understand how the team format really works, because as I said before I think it is the beautiful and different part of the project.
Last year we failed to explain well what the format was like
Enrique Buenaventura
Q. At what point and why did you decide that this year the NextGen category will be female?
R. Well, in the end we wanted to have three categories and we wanted the men’s and women’s categories to be exactly the same and have the same weight: each team has two captains, one male or female, and then the NextGen. The young people alternate. Last year we started with masculine because we opened it to a public vote and they voted masculine, and that’s why we started like that. We want to give the opportunity to all promising young people, male and female, and in this way I believe we achieve equality in all aspects.
