With back-to-back Masters crowns in his bag and the confidence of three straight wins over Rafael Nadal to boot, Novak Djokovic looks primed for the clay-court season and the defence of his Monte Carlo Masters title.
"Right now I do have confidence after the wins I had in Indian Wells and Miami," the Serbian said ahead of the start of Europe's clay-court swing, which ends with the French Open – the only grand slam title missing from Djokovic's resume. "They arrived at the right moment for me because I had a bit of a slow start to the season. Beating Rafa and Roger [Federer] in the finals gives me a confidence boost."
Both those wins – and the three successive victories against Nadal – have all been on hard courts. On clay courts, the Spaniard is a different beast, the undisputed king of the surface with 43 of his 62 titles on clay. Nadal’s career-winning percentage on clay is 93.4.
Only two other players in tennis annals – Bjorn Borg (86.3) and Ivan Lendl (81.4) – had a winning rate on clay greater than 80 per cent.
But then Djokovic is one of only three players – Federer and Horacio Zeballos the others – to have beaten Nadal in a clay-court final, and he has done it three times, all in Masters, including at Monte Carlo a year ago, when he brought the Spaniard’s run of eight straight titles at the tournament to an end.
The Serb is well set to do it again and, if he does, success at Roland Garros might seem like a possibility, as well.
arizvi@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Could We Be More
Artist: Kokoroko
Label: Brownswood Recordings
Rating: 3.5/5
SPEC SHEET
Processor: Apple M2, 8-core CPU, up to 10-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Display: 13.6-inch Liquid Retina, 2560 x 1664, 224ppi, 500 nits, True Tone, wide colour
Memory: 8/16/24GB
Storage: 256/512GB / 1/2TB
I/O: Thunderbolt 3 (2), 3.5mm audio, Touch ID
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Battery: 52.6Wh lithium-polymer, up to 18 hours, MagSafe charging
Camera: 1080p FaceTime HD
Video: Support for Apple ProRes, HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10
Audio: 4-speaker system, wide stereo, support for Dolby Atmos, Spatial Audio and dynamic head tracking (with AirPods)
Colours: Silver, space grey, starlight, midnight
In the box: MacBook Air, 30W or 35W dual-port power adapter, USB-C-to-MagSafe cable
Price: From Dh4,999
'Dark Waters'
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
