MELBOURNE // Novak Djokovic said it was good for men's tennis that the duopoly in grand slams had been broken after he thumped Swiss Roger Federer to reach the Australian Open final.
The Serb's 7-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory combined with Rafael Nadal's quarter-final defeat by David Ferrer means that Sunday's final will have a fresh look after 21 of the previous 23 grand slams were won by either the Federer or his great Spanish rival.
While playing down talk of eras ending, Djokovic said there was a sniff of change in the air. "I think on one side it's good for the sport to have more players being able to win against Federer and Nadal," Djokovic who will play Spain's Ferrer or British world No 5 Andy Murray for the title.
"It was really hard to challenge them, especially in the big events where they play their best tennis.
"Now these things are changing a little bit, so from that perspective it's good for the sport.
"It's maybe early to say (there's a new era). Roger is still very much motivated to reclaim the first spot in the rankings. He's playing great."
"Tonight I think I played maybe a better match, but he's still up there and in extraordinary form and he's been winning out of the last five, six tournaments he won five," he added.
"You have Nadal on the other hand who has been a very, very dominant player. We are still behind them. You can't say there is a new era coming up."
Djokovic certainly looks in great shape to add to his sole grand slam title he won in Melbourne in 2008 when he also beat Federer in the semi-final before taking out Jo Wilfried Tsonga.
He said his sizzling start to the new year was partly down to the euphoria of winning the Davis Cup with Serbia - a match that cut into his off-season but fuelled him with confidence.
"Definitely it was confidence boost, and I was coming, you know, preparing for a new season with the Davis Cup title just a couple of weeks behind me," he said.
"You know, to be able to have that in the back of your mind is a big advantage coming into the season, even though the fact of the matter is that I had a very short off-season.
"But still, I had that motivation and confidence from the big success that we had and playing really well. So I just continued on."
Djokovic and his teammates celebrated hard in the Serb capital after their country's first Davis Cup crown, but the 2008 Australian Open champion soon got back to the business of trying to break the Rafa Nadal / Federer duopoly of men's tennis.
"I knew that this two weeks are the most important, this period of the year," he said.
"This is where I want to play my best tennis and I was setting up my form exactly for this tournament. Paid off."
The world No 3 has a 3-2 winning record over Federer in grand slam semi-finals, beating the Swiss master at the US Open last year and three years before at Melbourne Park.
He said he was a wiser player than the pugnacious 20-year-old who stoked talk of a new era with his Tsonga victory but ended up spending the next three years as a support act.
"Physically I'm stronger. I definitely feel like that," he said. "I was a 20-year-old kid hitting as hard as he can with closed eyes and everything was going in back then. It was great. Felt great.
"I had my ups and downs throughout these two, three years, but right now I feel like I'm much stronger and more consistent and I know that I'm more stable, mentally and physically."
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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.”
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