Federer and Murray feel better on return

It is early days yet, but time off with his family seems to have rejuvenated Roger Federer. The world No 1 beat Canada's Frederic Niemeyer 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 at the Rogers Cup late on Tuesday in his first match since winning the Wimbledon singles title in July. After spending time with his wife Mirka and twin girls, Federer came through with a victory over the 487th ranked Niemeyer. Although Niemeyer lost his serve at 3-3 in the second set, Federer said Niemeyer had given him trouble with his own serve, making it difficult to establish a rhythm.

"After five or six weeks of not playing matches - just practice matches - you're a little slow on the returns," the Swiss master said after beating Niemeyer, who announced plans to retire at the end of this season. "He's a nice man," said Federer. "It's sad when you leave the game, but he seems happy with himself, so I wish him well. "We played each other in a satellite [tournament] in front of two people. It was snowing outside. And 11 years later we're playing in front of a packed house here in Montreal."

"The atmosphere was unbelievable," Niemeyer said. "It's my last match here and I was able to play the way I'm capable of playing. Too bad it was my last one, but I have no regrets. I just enjoyed the moment." Earlier, Andy Murray - who was off to the best start of his career with a 46-7 record, winning four tournaments this year - beat France's Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2 in the Montreal Masters.

Murray converted three of eight break chances, while Chardy missed all 10 of his. "I feel better now I've got through the first one, because you lose your rhythm a bit," said the third-seed Murray. "I didn't really have more than six or seven days off without playing a match for a long time." Murray will rise about Rafael Nadal to No 2 world rankings if he wins the tournament, or if he reaches the finals and Nadal, who earlier withdrew from Wimbledon because of tendinitis in his knees, loses in the semi- finals or before.

Along with Murray, the fourth-ranked Novak Djokovic rallied for a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Canada's Peter Polansky to also be in the third round. sports@thenational.ae

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As You Were

Liam Gallagher

(Warner Bros)

Sinopharm vaccine explained

The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.

“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.

"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."

This is then injected into the body.

"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.

"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."

The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.

Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.

“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.

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.”