Andy Murray got some payback on vocal local hope Marinko Matosevic, who criticised his coach Amelie Mauresmo, as he cruised into the Australian Open third round with a straight sets romp on Wednesday.
The British sixth seed had few problems in winning 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in 1hr 42min in hot conditions on Margaret Court Arena and will next face Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
The two-time Grand Slam champion broke the erratic Matosevic’s serve seven times and controlled the match with the Australian committing 49 unforced errors to Murray’s 12.
It extended Murray’s record against Australian opponents to 10-0 as he bids to go one better than his three runner-up finishes at Melbourne Park.
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It was also some riposte for Murray after Matosevic slammed the surprise appointment of Mauresmo as his coach last year.
Matosevic created headlines back then when he dismissively said of Murray’s decision to replace Ivan Lendl with Mauresmo: “I couldn’t do it because I don’t think that highly of the women’s game.
“It’s all equal rights these days, politically correct. Someone’s got to give it a go, but it won’t be me.”
Matosevic stubbornly stuck to his guns after Wednesday’s match, not back-tracking on his trenchant views.
“My opinion still hasn’t changed on that and it won’t be changing,” Matosevic said.
“It’s a different sport. I feel like women’s tennis is a different sport to men’s tennis.”
But Matosevic’s views did not bother Murray.
“No, I get on well with Marinko. I spoke to him a little bit about what he said. He didn’t mean any harm,” he said.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion on anything. If he wants to get coached by a man, that’s absolutely fine. I have absolutely no issue with it at all.
“I still think he’s a good guy. I get on well with him. I wasn’t trying to prove a point at all when I was playing Marinko today. I was trying to win the match.”
‘I love Aussies’
And asked if he had anything against Aussies, given his imposing playing record against them, Murray added: “I love Aussies, I get on well with a lot of the players from Australia and it’s just luck, I had no idea that was the case.
“But I’m sure in the next few years with the players the Aussies have got coming through, some fantastic young players, I am not sure if I am going to hold on to that record for much longer.”
Murray jumped out of the blocks and wrapped up the opening set in just 21 minutes but had some tighter games in the second and third sets.
“I definitely started quickly today. I was timing the ball well on the return and serving well from the beginning of the match,” he said.
“It helped a lot because obviously the crowd were behind him. I managed to take the crowd out of it a little bit by starting that quickly.
“He made a few errors at the beginning of the match. But when I noticed his timing was a bit off I felt like I played quite smart and used a lot of variety; didn’t give him the same ball twice in a row.”
Matosevic has yet to take a set off Murray in their three official matches to date.
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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.”
