Which name does not belong? Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish …
If this were a sports intelligence test, the question would not be among the difficult material.
The first seven names belong to American men who were ranked No 1 in the world during the past 35 years. The other is Mardy Fish.
Fish, however, belongs among that esteemed company for this reason: like the others, he has been the highest-ranked American in the world. He holds that distinction right this moment.
That his ranking is an interesting but not world-beating No 9 says more about the state of US tennis than it does about Fish.
He notched his sixth career ATP championship on Sunday, defeating his compatriot John Isner 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 in the final of the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
The victory almost certainly does not presage a charge toward the top of the rankings. Fish is almost 30, is six of 12 in career finals and one in 18 in matches against Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
He is a solid professional, with career earnings of US$5.5 million (Dh20.2m), but he is no Sampras nor even a Roddick, now ranked No 12.
What do we know about the world's top-ranked American?
He comes from Minnesota. His father is a teaching tennis professional who moved the family to Florida so Mardy could work on his game in that tennis hotbed.
He has a big serve, likes to come to the net and has beaten Andy Murray four times in seven meetings. His best performance in a grand slam is the quarter-finals, which he accomplished most recently at Wimbledon, where he managed to take a set off Nadal.
Fish lives in Los Angeles with his wife, a lawyer, and is very fond of their two-year-old dachshund, Charlie.
Fish has been known to change his playing schedule on occasions so that he can get back to see Charlie. "She's pretty spoiled," he has said.
Fish is not comfortable with the mantle of "best American", but he does like being in the upper echelon of tennis. "I want to stay in the top 10 for as long as I can and keep bettering my career-high ranking and do things I've never done before," he said in Atlanta.
"Today is one of them because I had never defended a title before, so it's another milestone for me."
This week in tennis
Men’s tour this week
Gilles Simon, of France, ranked No 18, defeated the Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to win the German Open in Hamburg, his second championship this season and the ninth of his career. Also, Mardy Fish, the No 9-ranked American, defeated compatriot John Isner 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 to win the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
ATP rankings
Player Country Points
1. N Djokovic SRB 13,155
2. R Nadal ESP 11,270
3. R Federer SUI 9,530
4. A Murray GBR 6,855
5. R Soderling SWE 4,325
Women's tour this week
Vera Zvonavera, the world No 3, defeated her Russian compatriot Ksenia Pervak 6-1, 6-4 to win at Baku, the newest stop on the WTA tour. It was the Muscovite's 12th title and first since winning at Doha in February. Pervak, 20, was playing her first final this year.
WTA rankings
Player Country Points
1. C Wozniacki DEN 9,915
2. K Clijsters BEL 7,625
3. V Zvonareva RUS 6,850
4. V Azarenka BLR 6,465
5. M Sharapova RUS 6,141
Farmers Classic
Place: Los Angeles
Duration: until Sunday
Prize money: US$700,000 (Dh2.6m)
Surface: hard
Defending champion: Juan Martin del Potro
Bank of the West Classic
Place: Stanford, California
Duration: until Sunday
Prize money: $721,000
Surface: hard
Defending champion: Victoria Azarenka
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
South and West: From a Notebook
Joan Didion
Fourth Estate
How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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