ABU DHABI // If you thought season 15 of the all-action Rafael Nadal show was going to be any different, perish the thought.
“He puts in so much intensity in every shot,” said David Goffin last night, after his first experience of facing Nadal in a competitive match.
“He plays every point like it is the last point, like his life depends on it.”
Nadal, of course, knows no other way to play. He has always been like that on the tennis court, despite medical advice to slow down and warnings from peers like former star Andre Agassi.
“He’s writing cheques that his body can’t cash,” Agassi had said in 2005, only three years after Nadal’s ATP World Tour as a 15-year-old in his hometown Mallorca.
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Agassi, of course, was true in his assessment. Nadal has missed close to 30 months of tennis due to injuries in his career.
But returning from his latest injury-enforced break, a two-and-a-half-month lay-off to allow his left wrist to heal, the Spaniard hardly seemed any wiser.
He was his usual relentless self, subduing, first, Tomas Berdych and then world No 3 Milos Raonic with his high-octane tennis before leaving the fleet-footed Goffin exasperated in yesterday’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship final.
"I play my way," said Nadal after his 6-4, 7-6 win for his fourth MWTC title. "Sport, for me, is all about passion.
“If you don’t try your best, then the sport loses its significance, loses its real values.
“So I have always tried my best during in my career. When I go back home, with an injury, or even after a defeat or a victory, I am always relaxed because I know I have always given my best, during lots and lots of years.
“When you give your best, then you are satisfied with yourself. If I don’t give my best, if I go on court and I am not fighting for the match, then I am going to feel so, so bad and I always try to avoid that.”
That passion and fight perhaps explains Nadal’s resolve every time he makes his return from injury.
Nadal, however, would like the pundits to give him a few months before they pass any judgements.
“We cannot start analysing my game from how I played here, or how I play in Brisbane,” he said. “Let’s wait and see how things go over a period of time. Let’s wait until after Indian Wells and Miami.
“I would have already had the chance to play in Brisbane, Melbourne, Rotterdam and Acapulco by then, which means I would have played enough tournaments to say, “OK, I am here’ or ‘I am there’.
“When you are coming back from injury and you have not competed in a while, you cannot analyse how you feel after two or three events. Let’s wait a couple of months.”
While the jury waits, Nadal believes there are plenty of positives he can take from his Abu Dhabi sojourn into the new season, most notably his forehand.
“I am very happy with my performance here and that gives me some positive energy for the New Year,” said Nadal.
“I played three matches against three top players, and to win against these kind of players is impossible if you are not playing well. So these three victories is really positive news.
“It was also pleasing to see that when I am able to play with confidence with my forehand, the matches are going the way I want.”
Then, addressing his fans, Nadal added: “The only thing I can tell them is that I have worked a lot to try to put myself in a position to be competitive again, to try to make them enjoy my tennis again, and I will do my best to make that happen.”
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Director: Nag Ashwin
Starring: Prabhas, Saswata Chatterjee, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Shobhana
Rating: ★★★★
Bournemouth 0
Manchester United 2
Smalling (28'), Lukaku (70')
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.”
Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
- John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a+£60,000 watch.
- James+‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Could We Be More
Artist: Kokoroko
Label: Brownswood Recordings
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
The stats and facts
1.9 million women are at risk of developing cervical cancer in the UAE
80% of people, females and males, will get human papillomavirus (HPV) once in their lifetime
Out of more than 100 types of HPV, 14 strains are cancer-causing
99.9% of cervical cancers are caused by the virus
A five-year survival rate of close to 96% can be achieved with regular screenings for cervical cancer detection
Women aged 25 to 29 should get a Pap smear every three years
Women aged 30 to 65 should do a Pap smear and HPV test every five years
Children aged 13 and above should get the HPV vaccine
ASSASSIN'S CREED MIRAGE
Developer: Ubisoft Bordeaux
Publisher: Ubisoft
Consoles: PlayStation 4&5, PC and Xbox Series S&X
Rating: 3.5/5
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
SPEC SHEET: NOTHING PHONE (2A)
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Platform: Android 14, Nothing OS 2.5
Main camera: Dual 50MP main, f/1.88 + 50MP ultra-wide, f/2.2; OIS, EIS, auto-focus, ultra XDR, night mode
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Cards: Dual-nano SIM
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In the box: Nothing Phone (2a), USB-C-to-USB-C cable, pre-applied screen protector, Sim tray ejector tool
Price (UAE): Dh1,199 (8GB/128GB) / Dh1,399 (12GB/256GB)
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
