Keen observers of the padel business industry these past two momentous years will have noticed the United States’ largest padel operator, Taktika Padel, calmly and steadily, building a strong presence not just in America but overseas in other similar level emerging padel markets, too.
With the highly regarded Ryan Redondo at the helm, Taktika has steadily built a stronghold on the Pacific coast. Redondo, a veteran in youth development, coaching, and management—first in tennis, now in padel—has played a key role in the company’s rise. Taktika’s home base is San Diego’s renowned Barnes Tennis Center, a multi-sport facility boasting 25 tennis courts, 19 pickleball courts, and seven padel courts—also home to an annual WTA 500 event. Beyond San Diego, Taktika has expanded to Major League Soccer team LA Galaxy’s Carson home on the fringes of LA and to the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Northern California—where, in a strategic nod to Redondo’s tennis roots, it launched the US’ first ever Padel and Pickleball complex on a college campus. Wherever Taktika has planted its flag, it has left a mark.
Expanding padel in California—an ambitious task in the world’s fifth-largest economy—was only the start. Behind the scenes, even bigger moves were in motion. These plans were revealed both by design and, fittingly for the romance of sport, with an air of serendipity. Or maybe, not by accident at all—such was the precision of Gabriel Perez Krieb and his team in orchestrating their Krü Padel by Taktika debut victory.
The week of Hexagon Cup 2025 will go down in Taktika folklore for many years to come, and here’s why. The week kicked off with the highly-anticipated Krü Padel by Taktika VIP cocktail party at one of Madrid’s esteemed venues, the five-star Rosewood Villa Magna, to announce not just the arrival of the Sergio “Kun” Aguero team’s arrival on the scene at the world’s most famous professional padel tournament, but also the birth of the Taktika Equity fund, which – in what’s transpiring to be true Taktika style – signifies the largest global padel fund to date.
For two years, Taktika had been in its soft launch phase—laying foundations, making moves. But that week in Madrid, the party wasn’t just a celebration; it was the starting gun for Taktika’s full-scale arrival on the international padel stage.
The guest list read like a who’s who of global padel, and by the time the week was over, one thing was clear: Taktika Equity wasn’t just funding clubs or backing Krü Padel—it was shaping the sport’s future. Beyond its powerhouse role in club development, Taktika Equity was making bold plays in retail, court manufacturing (holding the exclusive US license for Padel Galis), and amateur padel (through the Padel Business Tour), with more major ventures on the horizon.
This wasn’t just a moment. It was the moment Taktika announced itself to the world.
Yet, the most publicly pronounced birth of Taktika was to come in the days that ensued at the Madrid Arena. Casting an eye back, many observers sensed something big was in the making for Taktika that week – for one, their eye-catching hot pink neon team logo on their Palair-branded kit was catching the eye of every passer by, and became one of the tournament’s talking points (a genius marketing move by the Sarah Horrocks-led Palair if ever I saw one). There was the Krü Padel by Taktika fanbase in the crowds, with the neon pink flags and vocal fanbase drowning out the noise of many others. And then there was Kun himself, stopping for selfies at each and every turn and there, day and night to support his team courtside. For a football megastar, it was impressive stuff.
Yet, it was on the court, that Taktika did most of its talking, and in its debut year marched all the way to victory, a victory secured by its Next Gen (under 23s) players––a nod not just to Hexagon’s ethos on nurturing the padel players of tomorrow’s generation, but, coming full circle, a nod to Perez-Krieb’s and Redondo’s focus on youth development in sport.
Who said the romance of sport is dead? If it ever was, it was reborn in Madrid at Hexagon Cup 2025.
