Novak Djokovic lived up to his top billing at Wimbledon when he combined brutal force with deft touches to reach the second round in a 6-0 6-1 6-4 destruction of Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev on Monday.
The 2011 champion, elevated to top seed despite his world No 2 ranking, appeared to be heading for a rarely-seen “triple bagel” in men’s tennis when he led 6-0 5-0 against his hapless opponent.
Golubev eventually registered on the Centre Court scoreboard after 44 minutes, drawing a warm round of applause from the crowd who were eager to witness a closer contest.
Djokovic, however, was in no mood to oblige and took just 88 minutes to book a second-round showdown with wily Czech campaigner Radek Stepanek, who himself dismissed Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in three sets.
“It was a great start, especially the first two sets and I could not be happier with the performance,” said the Serb, who has not won a Grand Slam tournament since the 2013 Australian Open.
Djokovic was joined in the second round by Andy Murray, also elevated by Wimbledon’s grasscourt rankings system to the third seed, who handled Belgian challenger David Goffin with ease in a 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 win.
“I thought it was a very high-standard match. I was glad to finish it in three,” said the 2013 Wimbledon champion.
“I was nervous this morning and I was nervous last night, but once you sit down on the chair it’s time to get on with it.
“It brought back a lot of good memories. It is nice to walk out to a full crowd for the first match,” he added.
Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up, also advanced, coming from a set down to beat Romania’s Victor Hanescu 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
Grigor Dimitrov, the Bulgarian 11th seed who won the Queen’s title last week, beat Ryan Harrison of the United States, 7-6 (7/1), 6-3, 6-2.
Latvian 12th seed Ernests Gulbis, who made the French Open semi-finals, also went into the second round despite surprisingly stiff opposition from Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp in a 7-6 (9/7), 7-5, 7-6 (12/10)victory.
Spanish 18th seed Fernando Verdasco, who took Murray to five sets in the quarter-finals in 2013, was knocked out by Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, making him the highest men’s seed to lose at the All England Club on Day 1.
He was joined by Italian Andreas Seppi among seeds to fall on Monday. Seppi dropped a marathon match with Argentine Leonardo Mayer, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6. No 31 seed Vasek Pospisil also fell to Dutch Robin Haase 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 5-7, 3-6.
Sergiy Stakhovsky, the Ukrainian who sent seven-time champion Roger Federer crashing to a shock second round loss last year, beat Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Other seeds to book second-round tickets included No 7 David Ferrer (d Pablo Carreno Busta), No 16 Fabio Fognini (d Alex Kuznetsov), No 17 Mikhail Youzhny (d James Ward), No 20 Kevin Anderson (d Aljaz Bedene), No 21 Alexandr Dolgopolov (d Samuel Groth), No 26 Marin Cilic (d Paul-Henri Mathieu) and No 27 Roberto Bautista Agut (d Steve Johnson).
A number of unheralded players scored minor upsets over ATP Tour regulars as well, with Slovenia’s Blaz Rola beating Pablo Andujar, Taiwan’s Jimmy Wang beating Alejandro Gonzalez, Britain’s Tim Puetz beating Teymuraz Gabashvili, Australia’s Luke Saville beating Dominic Thiem and Czech Republic’s Jan Hernych beating Tobias Kamke.
Puetz was a rare British survivor on the tournament’s first day, with local qualifiers Kyle Edmund (defeated by Andreas Haider-Maurer), Daniel Cox (defeated by Jeremy Chardy), Daniel Evans (defeated by Andrey Kuznetsov) and Ward all going out.
Other unseeded first-round winners included Marcos Baghdatis (d Dustin Brown), Edouard Roger-Vasselin (d Filippo Volandri), Benjamin Becker (d Donald Young), Bernard Tomic (d Evgeny Donskoy) and Gilles Simon (d Konstantin Kravchuk).
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THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
MATCH INFO
Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')
Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')
Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre V10
Power: 640hp at 8,000rpm
Torque: 565Nm at 6,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: From Dh1 million
On sale: Q3 or Q4 2022
Essentials
The flights: You can fly from the UAE to Iceland with one stop in Europe with a variety of airlines. Return flights with Emirates from Dubai to Stockholm, then Icelandair to Reykjavik, cost from Dh4,153 return. The whole trip takes 11 hours. British Airways flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Reykjavik, via London, with return flights taking 12 hours and costing from Dh2,490 return, including taxes.
The activities: A half-day Silfra snorkelling trip costs 14,990 Icelandic kronur (Dh544) with Dive.is. Inside the Volcano also takes half a day and costs 42,000 kronur (Dh1,524). The Jokulsarlon small-boat cruise lasts about an hour and costs 9,800 kronur (Dh356). Into the Glacier costs 19,500 kronur (Dh708). It lasts three to four hours.
The tours: It’s often better to book a tailor-made trip through a specialist operator. UK-based Discover the World offers seven nights, self-driving, across the island from £892 (Dh4,505) per person. This includes three nights’ accommodation at Hotel Husafell near Into the Glacier, two nights at Hotel Ranga and two nights at the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. It includes car rental, plus an iPad with itinerary and tourist information pre-loaded onto it, while activities can be booked as optional extras. More information inspiredbyiceland.com
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Venom
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
Rating: 1.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
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.”
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 0
Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')
Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)
Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
