Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina put Angelique Kerber’s Australian Open preparations in a spin with a straight-sets upset win over the world No 1 at the Sydney International on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old, ranked 26, underlined her huge potential with a confident performance to take out the German, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in a second-round match played in sweltering conditions.
Only last week Kasatkina held a match point before going down to French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in the second round at the Brisbane International.
While she continues her march, Kerber’s form is a concern ahead of next week’s opening Grand Slam of the year, having also lost to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International last week.
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Kerber, who had a breakthrough 2016, winning two Grand Slams on her way to becoming world No 1, struggled to find any rhythm and her usually strong forehand was astray.
“I made too many mistakes and I was not actually feeling the ball, because the balls are flying here a little bit different than in Brisbane,” Kerber said.
“So it was not so easy, but I will try to forget the match as soon as I can.
“I will go in the next few days to Melbourne, and I will try to get ready there, trying to get the positive energy from last year.”
Asked about her emotions after her biggest win yet, Kasatkina said courtside: “Difficult to explain because I beat the number one in the world and it doesn’t happen every day. I think I got some confidence.”
Kasatkina will next play British world number 10 Johanna Konta, whose formidable serve troubled Australia’s Daria Gavrilova in a 6-1, 6-3 win.
“I’m just happy I have accumulated a few matches already under my belt in the first few weeks of the season,” Konta said.
It was a day of upsets in Sydney where temperatures sizzled around 36 Celsius (97 Fahrenheit), with defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and last year’s finalist Dominika Cibulkova both knocked out in the second round.
World number nine Kuznetsova went out to Russian compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3 while Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard continued her return to form with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the sixth-ranked Cibulkova.
Former Wimbledon finalist Bouchard, who has now won consecutive matches at a tournament for the first time since August, stretched her lead over Cibulkova to 4-1 head-to-head and will face Pavlyuchenkova in the last eight.
“Any time you play one of the best players in the world it’s like a standard of where you’re at,” Bouchard said.
“I have taken a couple of solid steps this week, but I’m far from where I want to be. Even though I won, to me, I could do a lot of things better.”
World number 27 Pavlyuchenkova, who knocked out Australian number one Samantha Stosur in the first round, won in her first career meeting with Kuznetsova.
Ninth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci was another seed to fall, losing 6-2, 6-3 to veteran Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.
Danish seventh seed Caroline Wozniacki ousted Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 7-5 and will next face Strycova.
* Agence France-Presse
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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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