PARIS // Kei Nishikori has told his Japanese compatriots that they should follow in his footsteps and blaze a trail to the United States if they want to reach the top 20.
The 23-year-old Nishikori is at a career-high 15th in the world, a dizzy climb helped by his stunning defeat of Roger Federer at the Madrid Masters last month.
But he has lived and trained in Florida since he was 14 years old, a move he believes matured him both as a player and an individual.
"For me, it was much easier that I was in the United States because I was able to hit with a lot of players - when I was 14 I was able to hit with [former world No 2] Tommy Haas. He was top 10 at that time," Nishikori said.
"That makes a lot difference. It was easy to go Europe and a lot of tournaments in US.
"Yeah, there are good facilities in Japan and good coaches, but the toughest thing is you need to play a lot of tournaments in Europe or US, because they have more good players.
"It is really tough to go all the way to Europe and those countries. It was a tough decision."
Nishikori begins his French Open campaign against Canada's Jesse Levine today and he is already the last Japanese man left at Roland Garros after Go Soeda went down 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 to Portugal's Joao Sousa during yesterday's play.
Nishikori has yet to get beyond the second round in his three visits to the French Open, falling in qualifying in 2008, then losing to Sergei Stakhovsky of the Ukraine in 2010 and world No 1 Novak Djokovic in 2011.
He was forced out of the 2012 event with injury.
"Hopefully, I will do well. I play Jesse in the first match," said Nishikori, who is seeded 13th.
"We have been playing a lot of practice together, and he was in the same academy.
"So, it's tough to play with friends always, but hopefully I can have a good start to this tournament.
"I never do well here, so hopefully I can have good results this year."
Soeda, the world No 124, trains in Tokyo, but believes Nishikori can inspire other Japenese players to thrive.
"Kei Nishikori is playing well; he's a great player," he said.
"Japanese players hope to be like him."
* Agence France-Presse
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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.
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Final
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