Struggling Novak Djokovic said he had taken encouragement from winning his first match on surviving his first grass court test ahead of his attempt to win Wimbledon for a fourth time.
The world No 4 defeated Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at Eastbourne in what is the first time he is playing a pre-Wimbledon tournament on grass since 2010.
The Serbian has had a poor year by his standards, having not won a tournament since the Qatar Open in January, and he failed to retain either his Australian Open or French Open titles as he fell down to No 4 in the ATP rankings, the lowest he has been since October 2009.
The three-time Wimbledon champion got onto court as first match on Wednesday after rain washed out Tuesday play - save one game in the Djokovic match - leaving organisers with a backlog to get through.
He claimed his fifth victory in as many attempts against Pospisil, who is now 4-22 lifetime against top 10 opponents.
"That was the first official grass court match for me this year," Djokovic said. "I'm glad that I came here to Eastbourne.
"I have had a great couple of days of training with good players, different styles of game.
"Yesterday it obviously wasn't really enjoyable to see the rain falling all day.
"But today we almost played a full match, so I'm glad for that. I felt good on the court, considering it's the first match.
"I played against an opponent that has a really good game for grass. Serves well, comes to the net, has a good variety.
"It was a really, really solid win. I'm happy with it."
Djokovic, who will be advised by Andre Agassi at Wimbledon, is the second-highest-ranked men's player to ever compete at the Aegon International behind then-number two Marcelo Rios in 1998.
* Agence France-Presse
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
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