Novak Djokovic put his seventh Wimbledon title down to patience, both on the day and over the course of the year, before admitting he is not sure what the rest of his season looks like.
Djokovic sealed his fourth straight Wimbledon title on Sunday with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 victory over Nick Kyrgios, the Serb producing a returning masterclass against the Australian's fearsome serve to win a fascinating final.
The 21st Grand Slam title, moving him one behind Rafael Nadal's all-time record, was achieved after a challenging season for Djokovic, who started the year embroiled in a visa row in Australia, which resulted in his deportation due to being unvaccinated against Covid-19.
Djokovic eventually started his season at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships but fell to a shock defeat in the third round, followed by a first-round exit at the Monte Carlo Masters. He finally won his first title at the Rome Masters, and after the disappointment of a quarter-final loss to Nadal at the French Open, found close to his best level to triumph at Wimbledon.
"Certainly this year has not been the same as past years," Djokovic, 35, said. "The way it started has affected me; definitely the first several months I was not feeling great generally. I was not in a good place.
"I wanted to play but when I went out on the court in Dubai for the first tournament of the year, I felt so much pressure and emotion and wasn't feeling myself. I knew then it would take some time, so I needed to be patient and sooner or later I would get myself in the optimal state for where I would like to be.
"When I left Australia I was ready to move but it wasn't that easy to close that chapter because I had the media and many people reminding me. It caused a lot of turbulence inside of me that I needed time to weather the storm. The game was there, it was just all these things off the court that were causing so many distractions that I had to deal with, not just myself but the people around me.
"Coming into Wimbledon, I felt good for my tennis because I had won three titles in a row here and feel good on the grass. I came from Paris after an emotional loss to Nadal but after Rome and Paris I was already playing the sort of tennis that would allow me to compete, so I felt good about my chances."
Practising that sort of patience proved an asset over the past two weeks at Wimbledon, where Djokovic had to fight back from losing the first set in each of his last three matches, including from two sets down in his quarter-final against Italy's Jannik Sinner.
After struggling to contend with Kyrgios' lights-out tennis for the first set of Sunday's final, Djokovic kept composed and soon found his touch and timing. Once he had a read on the Australian's serve, there was only going to be one winner.
"From the baseline I didn't miss much in those [last] three sets," Djokovic said. "It was part of the strategy when playing someone as talented and flashy as Nick, who has one of the best serves in the game. He puts constant pressure on opponents when he's cruising through his service games.
"It was frustrating at times to see balls fly past and having to deal with more work on my service games, but I felt the ball really well from the back of the court. I served well at moments but it's the Wimbledon final against a player who had nothing to lose, plus I had lost to him twice. All of those things were present but I think I managed everything pretty well."
A seventh Wimbledon title secured, the question now turns to what Djokovic does for the rest of the year. The ATP Tour will soon make its way to North America, culminating in the US Open. Both the United States and Canada require all foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, so at present Djokovic will not be able to compete at the two Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati, nor at the US Open.
Combined with the absence of ranking points at Wimbledon, which has resulted in Djokovic remarkably slipping to No 7 in the world, it leaves the Serb in an unusual position of needing to chase points if he wants to extend his record of year-end world No 1s to eight.
However, Djokovic was calm about how the rest of the year might unfold and insisted that at this stage of his career, his focus is on big tournaments and majors.
"I am on vacation. Whether I'm playing tournaments soon or not, I'm definitely resting for the next couple of weeks because it has been quite an exhausting and demanding period," he said. "Then I will wait hopefully for some good news from the USA. If that doesn't happen then I will have to see what the schedule will look like. I doubt I will go and chase points.
"From what I understand, winning a Grand Slam will qualify me for the ATP Finals unless I'm out of the top 20, so I will not burden myself to play tournaments to gain points.
"I don't feel any pressure to play certain tournaments and things have changed in the last year or so for me. I achieved the historic No 1, so now that is done and dusted I prioritise big tournaments and Slams. We will see what happens with the States and take it from there."
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
First-round leaderbaord
-5 C Conners (Can)
-3 B Koepka (US), K Bradley (US), V Hovland (Nor), A Wise (US), S Horsfield (Eng), C Davis (Aus);
-2 C Morikawa (US), M Laird (Sco), C Tringale (US)
Selected others: -1 P Casey (Eng), R Fowler (US), T Hatton (Eng)
Level B DeChambeau (US), J Rose (Eng)
1 L Westwood (Eng), J Spieth (US)
3 R McIlroy (NI)
4 D Johnson (US)
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Results
2.30pm: Dubai Creek Tower – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Marmara Xm, Gary Sanchez (jockey), Abdelkhir Adam (trainer)
3pm: Al Yasmeen – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: AS Hajez, Jesus Rosales, Khalifa Al Neyadi
3.30pm: Al Ferdous – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Soukainah, Sebastien Martino, Jean-Claude Pecout
4pm: The Crown Prince Of Sharjah – Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: AF Thayer, Ray Dawson, Ernst Oertel
4.30pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup – Handicap (TB) Dh200,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: George Villiers, Antonio Fresu, Bhupat Seemar
5pm: Palma Spring – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Es Abu Mousa, Antonio Fresu, Abubakar Daud
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
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.”
