LONDON // Rafael Nadal looked like he had never been away as he made a welcome return to Wimbledon with a ruthless victory yesterday over Kei Nishikori, the Japanese wildcard.
The Spanish world No 1 missed out on defending his title last June as he nursed his aching knees back home in Mallorca.
On the second day of the championships, he was back on a sun-soaked Centre Court and wasted little time in tormenting an opponent whom he had once tipped as a 'future top 10 player'.
The 20-year-old Nishikori, on a comeback trail after missing most of the 2009 season with an elbow injury, had the audacity to break Nadal for 3-3 in the third set but his joy was short-lived.
Nishikori, whose ranking has dropped to 189 since his injury, saved four break points in the next game but had no answer to a superb backhand from Nadal on a fifth.
Nadal, who sprang from his chair even before the umpire had finished saying 'Time' at every change of ends, powered to victory with an overhead smash on match point to finish in just over two hours.
"It is always special to play on this court so I am very happy to come back to this tournament and play on probably the most beautiful and most emblematic court in the world," Nadal told a news conference.
Asked if he was nervous about possibly playing his second-round match against Robin Haase in front of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who will attend the tournament for the first time in 33 years tomorrow , Nadal shrugged.
"I would love to have the chance to say hello to her but that's it," he said, before adding in Spanish: "I would love to have a photo with her."
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, meanwhile, has so far saved his best tennis for the hard courts of the Australian Open. He now hopes to make his mark at Wimbledon.
The French No 1 said he was still learning his trade on the Wimbledon grass after battling past Robert Kendrick, the big-serving American qualifier, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 yesterday. The 25-year-old, seeded 10, is making only his third appearance at the All England club following his debut in 2007 when he reached the fourth round.
"Robert is a very good player. I knew before the match it would be difficult, and it was," Tsonga said after withstanding a barrage of 28 aces from Kendrick.
Robin Soderling breezed into the second round with a rapid 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Robby Ginepri.
The Swedish sixth seed has never gone beyond the last 16 in seven previous visits to the All England Club but his total dominance of Ginepri, the world No 72, more than hinted he could progress further this year.
Andy Murray, seeded fourth, overcame a nervy start to ease through to the second round, his class finally telling in a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Jan Hajek, the unheralded Czech.
James Blake, a former world No 4, said he was considering his future in the sport after an "embarrassing" defeat at the hands of Robin Haase, a Dutchman. The 30-year-old was a shadow of his former dashing self in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 defeat - his second consecutive first-round defeat at Wimbledon.
Samantha Stosur, the French Open runner-up, will play no further part in the tournament after exiting at the first-round stage for the fourth time in eight appearances at the All England Club. The sixth-seeded Stosur lost to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, the 80th-ranked qualifier, 6-4, 6-4.
Serena Williams has promised Queen Elizabeth a curtsy "she'll definitely never forget" tomorrow but the Wimbledon champion will not be tempted into wearing an outrageous outfit.
Serena sailed through the first round yesterday, despatching Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito 6-0, 6-4 in just over an hour. "I was going to curtsy today on the court afterwards but I think I flubbed it. So I am definitely going to work on it a little bit more."
* Agencies
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
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Results
United States beat UAE by three wickets
United States beat Scotland by 35 runs
UAE v Scotland – no result
United States beat UAE by 98 runs
Scotland beat United States by four wickets
Fixtures
Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland
Admission is free
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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