Andy Murray will meet Rafael Nadal in the final of the ATP Madrid Masters after continuing his flawless start to the European clay court season with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Kei Nishikori.
Earlier, Nadal powered past the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 to reach his seventh final in the Spanish capital.
“This year and in the off-season I put in a lot of hard work on my game and made a few changes and tried to get back to playing the way that I was playing when I was my most successful,” said Murray.
“Today I was pretty aggressive, I tried to dictate a lot of the points, especially when he was serving, and it worked well.
“Against Rafa it’s going to be extremely difficult, especially playing here in Spain. I think he’s played very well this week too, so hopefully I can put in a good performance and make it tough for him.”
Murray won his first ever clay court tournament earlier in the week in Munich, but was up against an in-form Nishikori, who claimed his second consecutive Barcelona Open title two weeks ago.
“There were too many unforced errors from me. I don’t think I played too bad, but to beat Andy I was missing too much,” said Nishikori.
The world No 3 Scot was the dominant player in the first set as he claimed the final four games to move in front.
Japan’s Nishikori had been a set up on Nadal in last year’s final in Madrid before eventually having to retire due to injury, and he showed why he has become such an accustomed clay court player early in the second with a great variety of shots to get the early break.
However, Murray broke straight back to level at 2-2 and after five consecutive holds, the two-time grand slam champion broke once more to seal his place in his first ever final in a Masters event on clay.
Unusually it is Nadal who is seeking his first title of the European clay after falling to world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the Monte Carlo Masters semi-finals and a stunning defeat to Fabio Fognini early at the Barcelona Open last month.
However, the nine-time French Open champion showed signs of his best form back on his favoured surface in sealing victory in temperatures which nudged 30 degrees in just under two hours on court.
“Tomas is a player that is playing spectacularly this year, he is competing in all the tournaments and I had to be at a high level to beat him,” said Nadal, who holds a career 15-5 edge over Murray and is 6-0 on clay.
“It is without doubt one of the best matches I have played all year.
“I am very happy. This week was vital for me and to be in the final is great news. Last year Madrid helped me a lot and this year I think it is again.”
Nadal was blown away by Berdych earlier this year in the Australian Open quarter-finals, but he always looked sure to extend his record over the world No 7 to 7-0 on clay after edging a tight first set on the tie-break.
The 14-time grand slam champion finally broke through Berdych’s resistance in a marathon fourth game in the second set on his third break point opportunity to lead 3-1 and won the next three games to move to within one match of a fifth title in Madrid.
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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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