CINCINNATI // Former US Open champion Marin Cilic snapped Andy Murray's 22-match win streak Sunday to claim his first ATP Masters 1,000 title with a 6-4, 7-5 win at the Cincinnati tournament.
The 94-minute victory for the 27-year-old Croatian marked a career breakthrough as he earned his first Masters title on his 71st career attempt.
“This week is going to be remembered, it’s really, really something special,” said Cilic, who had seven aces and broke Murray three times.
“I look forward to the US Open in a couple of weeks. I hope we can continue with good form.”
• Andy Murray, feeling less than 'perfect', reaches Cincinnati final with victory over Milos Raonic
Cilic accomplished the feat on little rest, as he did not leave the court after his semi-final win over Grigor Dimitrov until 2am Sunday morning due to rain delays.
Olympic silver medallist Angelique Kerber lost to Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-1 in the women’s final of the joint WTA-ATP tournament.
The defeat ended Kerber’s chances of replacing Serena Williams as the top-ranked player in the world.
It was the German’s second defeat in a final in just over a week after losing to Monica Puig in the gold medal Rio match.
“I tried my best, but sometimes you have days where it’s not working so good,” Kerber said.
Cincinnati is only Cilic’s second title since winning the US Open two years ago.
Murray has been on a tear this season, winning grass titles at Queen’s and Wimbledon before triumphing a week ago over Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympic final.
But the accumulation of tennis finally proved to be too much for the Scot, who played his 14th match in 15 days dating back to the Games.
Cilic’s win was his third against 11 losses to Murray. He is the lowest-ranked Cincinnati champion since No 17 Carlos Moya in 2002.
Momentum mounted for Pliskova on a sunny day as she lifted the trophy after hitting 24 winners.
“The match was not as easy as the score looked. I think she might be a little bit tired or she felt a little bit of pressure on herself,” Pliskova said.
“I’m really happy with my game today. I was playing aggressive almost without mistakes. There was not one thing what I would change in this match.”
The Czech, who now owns seven career titles and stands 3-4 against Kerber, claimed the opening set in 32 minutes and needed 62 minutes in total to complete her role as spoiler.
Pliskova is the first Czech to win the Cincinnati trophy. She finished with seven aces and five breaks of Kerber.
She earned her second title of the season after claiming the honours in June on grass at the Aegon Open in Great Britain and is predicted to rise to 11th in the world.
Kerber fell into a 5-1 deficit in the second set after a double-fault. Pliskova served out the biggest win of her career a game later on a second match point.
Kerber is looking forward to the US Open which begins in eight days.
“This season I won my first grand slam, everything what’s happened in the last months is just incredible. I’m trying to enjoy it,” she said.
“Some days you’re losing matches, some days you win. I’ll try to take the positive things from the match and from the last few weeks to New York,” she said in reference to the upcoming US Open, the year’s final grand slam Tournament.
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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.”