Tapia and Coello Join Team Dalma — But Its Women Could Decide the Title
GOATIFYAgustín Tapia and Arturo Coello are accustomed to sharing the same side of a padel court. At the 2026 Hexagon Cup, they did the opposite. Tapia played for Robert Lewandowski's RL9 Team while Coello represented Team Bella Puerto Rico, and their temporary rivalry even produced a direct meeting in Madrid. Now the two world No. 1 players are joining forces for another team competition, this time as the men's pair for Abu Dhabi's newly unveiled Team Dalma.
The announcement is more than a familiar partnership appearing on another entry list. The 2027 Hexagon World Series will connect four events through one franchise championship, and Dalma has also recruited Portugal's Sofía Araújo and Italy's Giulia Dal Pozzo as its women's pair. Both matches matter to the team's results. The world's most recognizable men's partnership therefore gives Dalma a formidable foundation, but not an automatic title.
The new lineup creates three immediate questions: how much of Tapia and Coello's regular-tour dominance will carry into short-format team matches, how quickly the women's pairing can settle, and whether a home finale in Abu Dhabi becomes an advantage or an extra burden.
Tapia and Coello go from rival franchises to one Dalma jersey
Team Dalma's biggest signing comes with an unusual backstory: its headline pair already know almost everything about playing together, but they have not previously worn the same Hexagon team colors. Tapia belonged to the RL9 franchise linked to Robert Lewandowski. Coello was with Team Bella Puerto Rico. That separation mattered because Hexagon's team identities, unlike regular doubles partnerships, could put the sport's most successful pair on opposing sides.
The 2026 edition supplied the clearest example. Tapia partnered Jon Sanz and Coello played alongside Edu Alonso in the third-place contest in Madrid. Tapia and Sanz won 6-4, 6-2. It was a one-off team matchup, not evidence of any split between the world's leading pair on the regular professional circuit. Their move to Dalma is likewise a franchise decision, not a new Premier Padel partnership announcement.
What Dalma buys is established coordination. Tapia and Coello have been partners since 2023, developing the kind of coverage, anticipation and trust that is hard to reproduce by assembling two individual stars. The timing makes the signing especially attractive. On October 18 they recovered from losing the opening set of the Milano P1 final against Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. It was their twelfth title of the 2026 season and fourth in succession.
That result offers a useful reminder of their resilience, but it should not be treated as a forecast for Hexagon. A pair that can recover over three conventional sets may face a different rhythm when the scoring is compressed into super tie-breaks. There is less time to read an opponent, fewer games to repair a poor start and potentially more volatility on the decisive points. Their familiarity should help, yet the new competition is designed to challenge assumptions built from the regular tour.
Araújo brings a top-ten pedigree — and a different kind of pressure
Dalma's women's selection deserves more attention than the inevitable Tapia-Coello headline. Sofía Araújo was ninth in the FIP women's rankings on October 19, and the 31-year-old Portuguese player brings both high-level results and prior experience in this kind of franchise environment. She appeared for KRÜ Padel alongside Claudia Jensen at the 2026 Hexagon Cup. That familiarity with the atmosphere, compressed schedule and shared team stakes is valuable for a new entrant.
Araújo has reached a career-high world ranking of No. 6 and collected four titles on major professional circuits, including three Premier Padel trophies. Those achievements do not guarantee that her new partnership will immediately function, but they make her an established anchor rather than an untested name attached to a star men's lineup. The Abu Dhabi franchise is not relying solely on publicity to fill its second match.
There is also a tactical reason to watch this combination. Araújo generally operates on the left, where players are often asked to take a large share of attacking decisions. Dal Pozzo typically plays on the right. On paper, that division gives them complementary court positions without forcing one to abandon her usual side. Position alone cannot create timing or mutual confidence, though, especially when opponents can target the seams between new partners.
The team format changes how her performance will be judged. In a conventional doubles tournament, a close loss is the end of that pair's campaign. In Hexagon, a women's result is one part of a franchise confrontation, alongside the men's match, and it feeds a wider team standings race. Araújo's ability to stabilize difficult points and adapt to different opponents could be every bit as important to Dalma's season as the spectacular winners its men's stars can produce.
Dal Pozzo's breakout makes the women's matchup genuinely intriguing
Giulia Dal Pozzo gives Dalma a different profile: a 21-year-old Italian whose rise has accelerated sharply during 2026. She stood 25th in the FIP rankings on October 19 and became the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals of a Premier Padel Major earlier this year. Her progress is not merely a promising ranking trend; it is backed by a landmark performance against elite opposition.
One of the most revealing details is that her new teammate has already experienced that progress from across the net. Dal Pozzo and Nuria Rodríguez beat Araújo and Claudia Fernández in the Rome Major quarterfinals. The two future Dalma players faced each other three times in 2026 with different partners: Dal Pozzo won in Rome and Valladolid, while Araújo prevailed in London. That history gives them knowledge of one another's tendencies, but playing as partners is a different challenge from identifying an opponent's weaknesses.
Dal Pozzo's usual position on the right should allow Araújo to retain her preferred left-side role. The potential upside is an interesting blend of experience and youthful acceleration. The risk is that a pairing assembled for a franchise calendar may not have the long training blocks that established Premier Padel duos use to refine their movements. Short matches magnify that uncertainty. A hesitant exchange in the middle can be more costly when the set is decided at ten points rather than over a sequence of service games.
It is tempting to view the women's contest as the supporting act because Dalma signed the men's world leaders. That would misunderstand the format. With men's and women's matches carrying equal weight in team confrontations, the Araújo-Dal Pozzo partnership could determine whether Dalma turns its marquee recruitment into championship points. The first Madrid event in January will reveal much more about their practical chemistry than any list of individual credentials can.
Four stops and a home finale turn one signing into a season-long test
Dalma's ambitions will be tested across a circuit rather than a single exhibition weekend. The 2027 Hexagon World Series opens at Madrid's Caja Mágica on January 21–24, moves to North America in March and Scandinavia in June, then finishes in Abu Dhabi on October 21–24. The specific North American and Scandinavian host cities remain unconfirmed, as does the identity of the eighth franchise. Those gaps are logistical details to watch, not reasons to assume a particular location or opponent.
Eight teams are expected to compete at each stop in two groups of four. The series replaces conventional games and sets with a best-of-five super-tie-break contest: the first four tie-breaks are played to ten points and, if required, the fifth to six. The announced Star Point rule decides a 10-10 tie. This structure promises faster swings and more high-leverage moments. A dominant partnership may still be favored, but it cannot always lean on the gradual accumulation of service holds and break chances that defines longer matches.
The standings also make consistency essential. An event winner receives 25 franchise points, with 18 for second and 15 for third; points accumulated over all four stops decide the overall champion. That creates a different incentive from a standalone title: a disappointing weekend can be partially offset later, while repeated strong finishes may matter more than one spectacular result. Dalma's two pairs must therefore contribute across venues and opponents rather than relying on one headline victory.
Abu Dhabi has an unusually personal connection to the new lineup. Tapia and Coello won their first tournament together at the 2023 World Padel Tour Abu Dhabi Master, and Dalma's new franchise takes its name from the emirate's Dalma Island. Returning for the 2027 finale gives the men's pair a natural narrative and the team a home crowd. It also raises expectations. By October, fans will judge Dalma not on the glamour of its announcement but on whether its four-player roster has turned into a cohesive, points-winning unit.
Team Dalma has assembled a roster with an unusually clear headline and an equally important unresolved question. Tapia and Coello arrive with years of partnership chemistry and another dominant season behind them. Araújo offers established top-ten experience, while Dal Pozzo brings the momentum of a historic Italian breakthrough. Together, they look like credible contenders before the first ball is played.
But the 2027 Hexagon World Series is built to test more than reputation. Its compressed scoring can punish slow starts, its team format makes the women's result inseparable from the men's, and its four-event calendar rewards consistency across different environments. Madrid in January will be the first real measure. Abu Dhabi in October will provide the verdict. Until then, Dalma has won the recruitment headlines — not the championship.
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