Caroline Wozniacki received her toughest workout of the French Open so far against Flavia Pennetta.
Caroline Wozniacki received her toughest workout of the French Open so far against Flavia Pennetta.

Dane Wozniacki's taste for major success



Caroline Wozniacki, the 19-year-old world No 3, was unsure whether she would be fit to compete at the ongoing French Open, after being forced to retire from the WTA's Warsaw tournament last week. The Dane injured her right ankle in Charlestone in early April. The injury was cruel on Wozniacki who had hit a rich vein of form, reaching the final of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, before retaining her MPS Group Championships title at Ponte Vedra Beach a month later.

Last year's US Open final was widely seen as Wozniacki's major breakthrough and she approached this season as a hot favourite for grand slam success. Australia - where she lost in the fourth round - could be deemed a blip, but the French was in her sights after victory in Florida. Yet by the time she arrived in Warsaw, she had managed only two wins in her previous three tournaments (Stuttgart, Rome and Madrid) and, despite donning heavy strapping, she continued to feel pain in her ankle and was forced to retire in the quarter-finals against China's Zheng Jie, and understandably feared she would miss the clay-court grand slam. However, spurred on by the thought of competing in the season's second major and aided by a favourable draw made possible by her ranking as the tournament's third seed, Wozniacki recovered adequately and had, before yesterday, overcome early battles with straight-sets victories over Alla Kudryatseva, Tathiana Garbin and Alexandra Dulgheru.

The reward for her dominance on the clay was a fourth-round tie with Flavia Pennetta and the No 14 seed gave Wozniacki her biggest test yet under the Parisian sun. A three-hour tussle was settled in the final set when Pennetta faded, allowing Wozniacki - wearing strapping on both her right ankle and left groin - to close the match 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2 and book her place in the quarter-finals, where she will face another Italian in the form of Francesca Schiavone.

In the four majors, Wozniacki has continually surpassed her results of the previous year: A third-round finish at Wimbledon in 2008 was bettered last summer when she reached the last 16; while the fourth-round finish at Melbourne in January outdid last year's third-round exit. And, of course, few can forget the forceful displays at Flushing Meadows last September that resulted in the 19-year-old reaching her first grand slam final, only to lose to the returning and resurgent Kim Clijsters.

Depending how her injuries recover, a place in the semi-finals could beckon. Wozniacki has played 29-year-old Schiavone only once, losing in straight sets in Zurich two years ago, but there is no doubting the younger of the two players has developed at a more remarkable pace. Wozniacki is a far higher calibre of player than she was in 2008 and Schiavone will quickly notice. The last time they met there were seven places between the two players in the world rankings - Wozniacki was 15th, while the Italian was 23rd. Now there are 14. The Dane may have the upper hand, but whether she has the legs for the fight will ultimately decide the outcome.

gmeenaghan@thenational.ae

Score

Third Test, Day 1

New Zealand 229-7 (90 ov)
Pakistan

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

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How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
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The%20specs
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Key changes

Commission caps

For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:

• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term). 

• On the protection component, there is a cap  of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated. 

• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.

• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.

Disclosure

Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.

“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”

Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.

Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.

“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.

Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.

Your rights as an employee

The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.

The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.

If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.

Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.

The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.

The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

Medicus AI

Started: 2016

Founder(s): Dr Baher Al Hakim, Dr Nadine Nehme and Makram Saleh

Based: Vienna, Austria; started in Dubai

Sector: Health Tech

Staff: 119

Funding: €7.7 million (Dh31m)

 

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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The%20specs
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In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Fiona Sampson
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