ABU DHABI // It took precisely 24 minutes for Adil Maqbool to extend his record to nine Abu Dhabi Squash Open titles.
The UAE ace now prepares to return to the professional circuit that once took him to No 66 in the world.
Maqbool never had it so easy in taking the capital's premier title on his return to top-flight competition after a two-year break to complete his studies.
He got the better of Aamir Khan, the bottom seed, 11-3, 11-3, 11-5 in the final at the Beach Rotana hotel on Saturday.
"Aamir has improved a lot," said Maqbool, a Dubai resident who remains unbeaten in nine meetings with Aamir, who lives in Abu Dhabi.
"He is fit and faster but I was tactically a little stronger than him and was able to move him around more. I think playing in the recent ranking tournaments made a big difference in my game, so I was able to absorb whatever he was throwing at me."
Maqbool, 25, and Aamir, 22, both born in the UAE to Pakistani parents, play practice games one or twice a week, and know each other's game well.
The closest Aamir has come to a win against Maqbool was six months ago when the latter had just returned from a break. He took the first two games before the UAE No 1 rallied to win the match 3-2.
"He has taken a game from me in four meetings at the Abu Dhabi Open but tonight was the most comfortable win for me since he has grown up," Maqbool said.
He has been the UAE No 1 since 2001 and won the Abu Dhabi Open nine times in 10 appearances, the only blemish coming in 2003 when he went down to Ben Rickaby.
Maqbool stopped training professionally for two years from 2010 when he travelled to England to complete his bachelor's degree in computer science.
"I stopped playing in the [Professional Squash Association] tournaments and my ranking dropped from 66 in the world to 240 in two years," he said.
"I returned to Dubai, got married, and started training professionally from last year."
Since then, he has improved his ranking to 117 in the world, reaching the last eight in recent tournaments in Pakistan and twice in Kuwait. He defeated Ali Bader Al Ramzi, the Kuwaiti No 3, to reach the quarter-finals of the US$10,000 (Dh36,700) PSA event last week.
"I left my job of two years to start my own business in computers and web services, so I can find time to train professionally again," he said. "My objective is now to get to the top 60 and then see how far I can go from there, perhaps the top 20.
"It is an achievable goal for me. It would be a big achievement if I can fulfil that ambition, considering that I had to combine my passion with the studies and now a family to look after."
Maqbool has an eight-month-old son, Amaar, from his marriage in 2011, and he tries to budget his time carefully. "I just want to get back home quickly. My wife is very understanding and supports me." He trains over two sessions five days a week.
Maqbool is hoping to play in some of the top tournaments in the coming months, and insisted that good results would take him to the top 100, a status he had enjoyed for four-and-a-half years, until he was 21. It may also provide the opportunity for him to play again in the open tournaments in Britain, Australia and the United States, as well as the World Open in Manchester in October.
According to Maqbool, the top 32 are guaranteed a place in the World Open and will be joined by the next 32 highest-ranked players.
"Usually all those in the top 64 in the world may not be able to make it for various reasons, so if you are in the top 80 there is a good chance of playing in the World Open, which would be one of my goals for next year," he said.
His father, Khawaja Maqbool, has been his coach all along, but a shortage of training partners has always been a hindrance to his development.
"The lack of good match practice is one of the problems I face in Dubai yet I am confident to achieve a top 60 ranking and beyond," he said. "In squash, you either run or make the other run. I have good racket skills to make the other do the running. So fitness, I can achieve the level in six months.
"If I can get my head into it, I know I can achieve what I am looking for. There are guys now in the PSA top 10 whom I never lost as a junior."
[ apassela@thenational.ae ]
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
WIDE VIEW
The benefits of HoloLens 2, according to Microsoft:
Manufacturing: Reduces downtime and speeds up onboarding and upskilling
Engineering and construction: Accelerates the pace of construction and mitigates risks earlier in the construction cycle
Health care: Enhances the delivery of patient treatment at the point of care
Education: Improves student outcomes and teaches from anywhere with experiential learning
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 2.5/5
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
Zayed Sustainability Prize
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Calls
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillian, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
4/5
The Specs
Lamborghini LM002
Engine: 5.2-litre V12
Power: 450hp at 6,800rpm
Torque: 500Nm at 4,500rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
0-100kph: 9 seconds (approx)
Top speed: 210kph (approx)
Years built: 1986-93
Total vehicles built: 328
Value today: $300,000+
The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000+ social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
The Specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 118hp
Torque: 149Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Price: From Dh61,500
On sale: Now
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.”
Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier
From September 18-25, Abu Dhabi
. The two finalists advance to the main event in South Africa in February 2023
Group A: United States, Ireland, Scotland, Bangladesh
Group B: UAE, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea
UAE group fixtures:
Sept 18, 3pm, Zayed Cricket Stadium – UAE v Thailand
Sept 19, 3pm, Tolerance Oval - PNG v UAE
Sept 21, 7pm, Tolerance Oval – UAE v Zimbabwe
UAE squad: Chaya Mughal (captain), Esha Oza, Kavisha Kumari, Rinitha Rajith, Rithika Rajith, Khushi Sharma, Theertha Satish, Lavanya Keny, Priyanjali Jain, Suraksha Kotte, Natasha Cherriath, Indhuja Nandakumar, Vaishnave Mahesh, Siya Gokhale, Samaira Dharnidharka
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
3 Body Problem
Creators: David Benioff, D B Weiss, Alexander Woo
Starring: Benedict Wong, Jess Hong, Jovan Adepo, Eiza Gonzalez, John Bradley, Alex Sharp
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: PlanRadar
Started: 2013
Co-founders: Ibrahim Imam, Sander van de Rijdt, Constantin Köck, Clemens Hammerl, Domagoj Dolinsek
Based: Vienna, Austria
Sector: Construction and real estate
Current number of staff: 400+
Investment stage: Series B
Investors: Headline, Berliner Volksbank Ventures, aws Gründerfonds, Cavalry Ventures, Proptech1, Russmedia, GR Capital
SPEC SHEET: SAMSUNG GALAXY S24 ULTRA
Display: 6.8" quad-HD+ dynamic Amoled 2X, 3120 x 1440, 505ppi, HDR10+, 120Hz
Processor: 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 64-bit octa-core
Memory: 12GB RAM
Storage: 256/512GB / 1TB
Platform: Android 14, One UI 6.1
Main camera: quad 200MP wide f/1.7 + 50MP periscope telephoto f/3.4 with 5x optical/10x optical quality zoom + 10MP telephoto 2.4 with 3x optical zoom + 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2; 100x Space Zoom; auto HDR, expert RAW
Video: 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60/120fps, full-HD@30/60/240fps, full-HD super slo-mo@960fps
Front camera: 12MP f/2.2
Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0, Wireless PowerShare
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC
I/O: USB-C; built-in Galaxy S Pen
Durability: IP68, up to 1.5m of freshwater up to 30 minutes; dust-resistant
SIM: Nano + nano / nano + eSIM / dual eSIM (varies in different markets)
Colours: Titanium black, titanium grey, titanium violet, titanium yellow
In the box: Galaxy S24 Ultra, USB-C-to-C cable
Price: Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,599 for 512GB, Dh6,599 for 1TB
Key fixtures from January 5-7
Watford v Bristol City
Liverpool v Everton
Brighton v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v AFC Fylde or Wigan
Coventry v Stoke City
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Manchester United v Derby
Forest Green or Exeter v West Brom
Tottenham v AFC Wimbledon
Fleetwood or Hereford v Leicester City
Manchester City v Burnley
Shrewsbury v West Ham United
Wolves v Swansea City
Newcastle United v Luton Town
Fulham v Southampton
Norwich City v Chelsea
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
Faber & Faber
