The Circuit

The lead note

In February the week of 14 to 20 September belonged to a Premier Padel P2 in Europe. It belongs now to the Hexagon World Series, the new team circuit, whose launch was moved on 12 August to January 2027 in Madrid. The Paris Major finishes on 13 September, Rotterdam begins on the 28th, and the fortnight between them holds no Premier Padel event. It holds three FIP Championships events.

The conversion came inside a set of calendar changes FIP, Premier Padel and Hexagon announced together in February. The 12 August release, published a month before that week, says the Series will now launch in January 2027 in Madrid and that the calendar originally planned for 2026 will be reshaped. The release gives the reason as the work required to build a robust and sustainable structure across multiple markets. Sergio Lewin, who co-founded the Hexagon Cup, said: "Building an international circuit of this scale takes time, a strong foundation and close collaboration."

A calendar is not a schedule. It is a set of permissions, and this year's were issued in February and revised in August.

Checked this morning, FIP's own Hexagon calendar still listed Hexagon World Series I for 14 to 20 September, location TBC, registration closed. Hexagon held three weeks of the 2026 calendar, and the August release does not say what becomes of them. Whether the converted P2 returns is, at the time of writing, unanswered.

This week in the game

Natividad Lopez Diaz went into Sunday's women's final at the FIP Bronze in Barcelona El Prat with a record already in her name. FIP's own headline calls her the Cupra FIP Tour's most successful woman, the first to eight titles on it. The eighth came at Mondeville in January 2025, alongside Aida Martinez Sanjuan, who partnered her again this week. The pair came through the main draw without dropping a set. She won it from a set down, beating Carmen Castillon Gamez and Maria Laura Ferreyra 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.

Bali's FIP Silver at Island Sports Canggu carried a purse of €18,000. In a women's main draw of 64, Indonesia had 23 entries and Spain 14; in the men's draw it ran the other way, 27 Spaniards against Indonesia's 14. Feity Lesmana, who is 48, reached the women's quarter-finals.

The youth event alongside it drew 138 pairs across eight age categories, under-12 to under-18, boys and girls. That is the largest field FIP has recorded for a youth tournament in Asia. Jakarta, a month ago, took 113.

There was no Premier Padel event this week. Six FIP events were scheduled to finish on Sunday: two in Bali, two in Mol, one at Barcelona El Prat and one at Alhaurín de la Torre. FIP had published no result from the three youth events at the time of writing. Carla Fernandez Gonzalez and Nerea Guerra Santana took the women's Silver in Bali; Marcos Gonzalez Blanco and Martin Abud the men's. Arnau Ayats and Emilio Sanchez Chamero won the men's Bronze at El Prat, and Thijs Roper and Willy Släryd the men's Bronze in Mol.

The week ahead

Taranto comes next. Padel enters the Mediterranean Games programme as a medal sport for the first time, with competition running from 22 to 28 August: 136 total participants from 18 Mediterranean national federations, in men's, women's and mixed events. Athletica Vaticana is there as a guest. FIP Gold San Luis opens in Mexico on Monday, and the Comunidad de Madrid P1 follows from 29 August on FIP's Premier Padel calendar.

From the club

Issue Two has been live since 3 August, with The Racket Roulette and The 7 P's of the Southside in it. Edition №3, our week at the London P1, went up on 10 August. Episode Two of The Sessions, with Jethro Binns of Padel Levels, published on 11 August. It is on ratings and grading.

See you at the club.

How this was compiled. This week in the game is desk work, not reporting. Results, draws and dates are taken from the International Padel Federation's own calendars, event pages and live brackets: the Premier Padel calendar, the FIP Championships calendar, the Hexagon World Series calendar and the individual event brackets. The February and 12 August announcements are quoted from FIP's own releases. The Bali main-draw nationality counts were counted player by player off the bracket. No player ranking is printed: this weekend's finals move several of them. The observations are the editors' own.