PARIS // With Wimbledon just weeks away, Francesca Schiavone, the newly crowned French Open champion, might want to try kissing Centre Court grass instead of clay.
Schiavone defeated Samantha Stosur, the Australia, 6-4, 7-6 in Saturday's entertaining final, and celebrated by kissing the playing surface, a ritual she began in the quarter-finals.
"To kiss the ground for me is to thank this clay, this beautiful tournament and this arena," she said.
At Wimbledon she will not have the element of surprise that she enjoyed in Paris but the demonstrative Italian made a breakthrough last year at the All England Club, reaching the quarter-finals there for the first time, and she will be eager to build on the momentum generated by her first grand slam title.
Schiavone, playing in her 39th major tournament and seeded 17th, was a champion easy to applaud. Her improbable victory won praise by grand slam winners past and present, from Martina Navratilova to Kim Clijsters.
"Congrats Schiavo!" Clijsters tweeted. "Great to see one of the nicest, funniest, coolest, honest and hard-working girls win the trophy!"
Giorgio Napolitano, the president of Italy, phoned Schiavone with congratulations before she had even left the court. She is the first Italian women's champion in the 126-year history of grand slam tennis.
When asked if she expects a reception from 50,000 in Rome, she said no. But she does expect a slightly expanded fan base.
"I want to go home to mommy and daddy," she said. "This is my goal for the moment. Usually we do good dinner or good lunch, 10 people, usually. Now I think I have to buy a new house for 50 people."
The crowd for the final included some of those friends and relatives. She was surprised by their attendance and recounted a conversation she had with them after the match.
"I said, 'What are you doing here?'
"'Oh, we took a car. We came 10 hours.'
"I said, 'You're crazy.'
"'You didn't pay us the flight, so we had to take the car.'"
At 29, Schiavone became the oldest woman in 41 years to win her first grand slam title. The only other time Roland Garros has been won by a woman not seeded in the top 10 was in 1933.
Like many Europeans, Schiavone grew up with a special regard for the French Open, which made the victory that much sweeter.
"I really always dreamed [of] this tournament," she said. "It's strange to say it, but when I call my daddy, he said to me, 'I remember that you always dream this one.' Every morning that you wake up, you work to do something like this."
Today, two weeks short of her 30th birthday, she will become the oldest woman in 12 years to enter the top 10 for the first time. She is expected to be ranked sixth.There have been plenty of one-slam wonders, from Gabriela Sabatini to Conchita Martinez to Iva Majoli. Schiavone sees no reason she can not continue her recent progress.
"Why should it finish?" she said. "When you have success, you should have others. It should become something continual. You can't win one thing and then disappear."
She will take a one-week break from the tour, then play in England at Eastbourne as a grass-court warm-up. Last year at Wimbledon she reached the quarter-finals, which until now was her best showing at a grand slam.
She said that nerves then got the better of her in a quarter-final loss to Elena Dementieva.
"I'm excited if I think about Wimbledon," Schiavone said. "Last year I did good, but I arrived at the quarter tight and I couldn't play so good in the quarter.
"The grass is something special. It's something you have to feel. You have to practice and work on it. As soon as I can, I'll start to do it."
Can she become the first woman in eight years to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back?
"I'm curious now," she said. "More than you."
* AP
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Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
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Creator: Mike White
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Rating: 4.5/5
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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.”
What is a calorie?
A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.
One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.
A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.
Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.
Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram.
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
