Andy Murray has reunited with his former coach for this weekend’s highly anticipated Hexagon Cup padel tournament – which is being shown live on ITV.
Two-time Wimbledon winner Murray is co-owner of AD/vantage, one of the teams in the Hexagon Cup, for which qualifying started today (Thursday 31 January) at Madrid Arena.
Murray, an investor with UK padel firm Game4Padel, has partnered with AD Global Sports founders Arran Yentob and Dani Vallverdu, as co-owners in Team AD/Vantage.
The partnership reunites Murray with Dani Vallverdú, his coach from 2010-2014, during which time Murray won his first Olympic gold medal at London 2012 and Grand Slams at the 2012 US Open and the 2013 Wimbledon Championships.
Murray said: “The preparation is complete, and it’s now time for Team AD/vantage to go out and prove themselves in the Hexagon Cup. We’ve selected a team of incredible talent, and I can’t wait to see them go head to head with the other teams.”
Murray added: “Padel is a super fun sport. It’s easy to play and social, and people all round the world are enjoying it. Together with Arran and Dani, we’re hoping Team AD/vantage will do us proud in the Hexagon Cup, whilst also helping grow the popularity of padel around the world.”
The Hexagon Cup features 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 head-to-head qualifying matches. Only the top two pairs from each group will advance to Saturday’s semi-finals and Sunday’s finals, where the inaugural Hexagon Cup champions will be crowned.
Other team owners include former Desperate Housewives star and entrepreneur Eva Longoria and Barcelona and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski.
Qualifying kicks off today (31 January) and goes through to 2 February. In the UK, all matches are streamed live on DAZN, and discovery+. The semi-finals (3 February) and finals (4 February) are shown live on ITVX. A highlights show will be shown on ITV4 following the tournament.
