Petra Kvitova needs to be quick out of the blocks in Saturday's WTA Dubai final if she is to beat Belinda Bencic. AFP
Petra Kvitova needs to be quick out of the blocks in Saturday's WTA Dubai final if she is to beat Belinda Bencic. AFP
Petra Kvitova needs to be quick out of the blocks in Saturday's WTA Dubai final if she is to beat Belinda Bencic. AFP
Petra Kvitova needs to be quick out of the blocks in Saturday's WTA Dubai final if she is to beat Belinda Bencic. AFP

Dubai Tennis 2019: Why Petra Kvitova must start well against Belinda Bencic to triumph in final


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It is Petra Kvitova against Belinda Bencic in the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final on Saturday evening at 7pm.

Here is a breakdown of the final and why both women have strong cases for walking away from the tournament as champion.

How Kvitova got to the final

It has been a slog for the 2013 Dubai champion, something she has admitted herself.

Three of her four matches have gone to three-setters and there has been times, particularly in the last-16 clash with Jennifer Brady when she lost five games in a row in the second set, that she has looked badly out of sorts.

But she has survived. Even in the semi-final against Hsieh Su-Wei, when she lost the first set, she dug deep and it showed the fierce drive within the Czech.

How Bencic got to the final

The Swiss has beaten three top-10 seeds in a row to reach the final, all in spectacular contests.

She survived six match points to beat Aryna Sabalenka in the last 16, defeated world No 2 Simona Halep in the quarter-finals after dropping the first set and then came back from a break down in the final set to overcome defending champion Elina Svitolina in Friday's semi-final.

The world No 37 does not appear to know when she is beaten and a second Premier title, almost four years after her last one in 2015 in Toronto, is now just one win away.

Match-up

On paper it should be Kvitova's match to lose, given she has won all three previous meetings with Bencic, most recently beating the Swiss in straight sets at the Australian Open in the third round.

Deciding factors 

Bencic is playing possibly the best tennis of her career. She has shown no fear in defeating players of the calibre of Halep and Svitolina and she has reminded everyone just why she was a top-10 player as long ago as 2016.

If Kvitova is slow out of the blocks, as she has been in some games this week, she may struggle to get this back as Bencic is by far her hardest challenge of the week.

If Bencic builds up early momentum it will be hard to pull her back, given her soaring confidence.

Kvitova has won twice this week after dropping the first set, but with all due respect to Katerina Siniakova and Hsieh, Bencic is playing at a higher level then both those players.

The two-time major Wimbledon champion has not played a seeded player on her run to the final. Bencic is not one either, but she has played like one.

This certainly should be closer then the 6-1, 6-4 win that Kvitova claimed in Melbourne just over a month ago.

If Kvitova can take control early on her quality she should see through, but Bencic's tenacity should not be underestimated.

Timeline

2012-2015

The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East

May 2017

The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts

September 2021

Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act

October 2021

Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence 

December 2024

Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group

May 2025

The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan

July 2025

The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan

August 2025

Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision

October 2025

Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange

November 2025

180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana

Rating: 4.5/5

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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eamana%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2010%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Karim%20Farra%20and%20Ziad%20Aboujeb%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EUAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERegulator%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDFSA%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinancial%20services%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E85%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESelf-funded%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO

World Cup qualifier

Thailand 2 (Dangda 26', Panya 51')

UAE 1 (Mabkhout 45 2')

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
UAE squad v Australia

Rohan Mustafa (C), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Fahad Nawaz, Amjed Gul, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Muhammad Naveed, Amir Hayat, Ghulam Shabir (WK), Qadeer Ahmed, Tahir Latif, Zahoor Khan

Liverpool's all-time goalscorers

Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228

Barings Bank

 Barings, one of Britain’s oldest investment banks, was
founded in 1762 and operated for 233 years before it went bust after a trading
scandal. 

Barings Bank collapsed in February 1995 following colossal
losses caused by rogue trader Nick Lesson. 

Leeson gambled more than $1 billion in speculative trades,
wiping out the venerable merchant bank’s cash reserves.  

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.”