Indian Wells: Dubai champion Belinda Bencic shocks world No 1 Naomi Osaka

Belinda Bencic continued the form that saw her beat four top-10 players on her way to winning the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February, as she shocked world No 1 Naomi Osaka in the fourth round at Indian Wells.

Osaka never found her rhythm against the Swiss, who used her precise groundstrokes and pinpoint serving to topple the defending champion 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour.

The result continues Osaka's tough start to life at the top of the WTA rankings, having been beaten in straight sets by Kristina Mladenovic in the second round in Dubai.

"She sort of came out there really aggressive," Osaka said. "She sort of knew what she wanted to do more than me."

Osaka fired her coach and lost in the first round in Dubai before taking on a new coach, Jermaine Jenkins, who came on court during the match.

"It's always a bit tricky whenever you change someone in the team, but I feel like for a first tournament we did really well," Osaka said. "We communicate well, so that's a really big plus. I don't think it's going to be difficult."

Bencic, 22, who has risen as high as world No 7 before struggling with injuries, hit a forehand volley on match point to seal the win and send her into the quarter-finals.

"I was really happy with the performance," Bencic said. "It wasn't as easy as the result is saying and I didn't expect it like that, so definitely happy."

The world No 23 will next go up against world No 5 Karolina Pliskova for a place in the semi-finals.

Osaka was not the only top women's player shocked on Tuesday in California as world No 2 Simona Halep, the 2015 winner, fell to Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Halep, who received treatment for blisters on her foot during the match, hit just six winners and piled up 36 unforced errors.

"I was running too much and too defensive," she said. "But it's everything I could do today."

The win was 19-year-old Vondrousova's first over a top-10 player in six attempts.

"I'm playing well all week but this is something special because she's number two in the world," Vondrousova said. "I was just fighting for every point."

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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.”