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Carlos Alcaraz became the second youngest man to reach the Olympic Games men's tennis final on Friday when he thrashed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Alcaraz, 21, swept to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over the Canadian in just 75 minutes and will meet Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final after the top-seeded Serb overcame a knee injury to beat Italy's Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-2 in the second semi-final.
“It has been an objective since the start of the year to try to win the gold medal and now we have one match left to try to get it done,” said Alcaraz, who become the youngest player to reach the gold medal match since tennis returned to the Olympics at Seoul in 1988.
“I want to have fun in the final and do the business.”
Spanish star Alcaraz, playing on the same Roland Garros court where he won the French Open in June, broke the 19th-ranked Auger-Aliassime three times in the first set, racing away with six consecutive games.
Alcaraz broke again in the fourth and sixth games of the second set on his way to claiming a fourth successive win over the Canadian having lost the first three of the pair's series.
“It was a very complete performance and I played at a very high level from start to finish,” said Alcaraz.
“I had very good feelings and sensations, I'm so happy.”
He added: “The final is very important for me and the Spanish people but I try not to think about how important it is and will focus on the match.”
Wimbledon champion Alcaraz is the fourth Spanish man to reach the Olympic men's final after Jordi Arrese at Barcelona in 1992, Sergi Bruguera in Atlanta four years later and Rafael Nadal who won gold at Beijing in 2008.
He now has the chance to become the youngest men's champion since tennis returned to the Olympics at Seoul in 1988.
Sunday's title match at Roland Garros will be the pair's seventh meeting and follows on the heels of Alcaraz defeating the Serbian star in the Wimbledon final three weeks ago.
“It was a tense match, there were a lot of expectations and stress in the match. I want the gold but this is already a huge result,” said Djokovic.
“I had lost four semi-finals so I wanted to get over this hurdle.”
The 37-year-old Djokovic, who only has a bronze medal from 2008 in Beijing to show for his Olympic efforts, showed no sign of the right knee injury he aggravated in Thursday's quarter-final win over Stefanos Tsitsipas.
He said Alcaraz, who won the French Open at Roland Garros in June, will be the favourite on Sunday.
“It will be the biggest challenge, facing him on this court,” he said. “He beat me at Wimbledon. But these are different circumstances and I feel I am a better player than at Wimbledon.
“I will come out and play my best tennis. I have nothing to lose so I will just go for it.”
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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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