WTA Stuttgart
Two young guns of tennis issued statements of intent on Tuesday at the star-studded WTA Women’s Stuttgart Open.
Tasked with the tournament’s fifth seed and a former world No 1 (currently No 6) in Ana Ivanovic, France’s 21-year-old world No 29 Caroline Garcia overcame a tough first set and won 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 to reach a last 16 meeting with Carina Witthoft.
Garcia frustratingly reached the finals at the two Mexican stops – Monterrey and Acapulco – on the WTA Tour this year, losing to Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland on both occasions.
Since the second of those tournaments in early March she had scuffled in singles play, losing five of six including Fed Cup matches before a solid victory over Ivanovic on Tuesday.
She was joind in the second round by Spanish world No 20 Garbine Muguruza, also 21, who breezed by world No 23 Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-4.
She draws a much tougher assignment to advance to the quarter-finals in second-seeded world No 3 Simona Halep.
The win comes after Muguruza had fallen to Sara Errani (world No 15) in Miami, Karolina Pliskova (No 12) in Indian Wells, Carla Suarez-Navarro (No 10) in Doha, and Pliskova earlier as well in Dubai in her last four meetings with top opponents.
Her last win against a top-20 player came at the Dubai quarter-finals against Suarez-Navarro in mid-February, before she was beaten by Pliskova in the semis.
Elsewhere on Tuesday Suarez-Navarro went through in three sets against Evgeniya Rodina after losing a second-set tie break, Czech world No 13 Lucie Safarova avanced in straight sets to arrange a last 16 battle with Caroline Wozniacki and world No 8 Ekaterina Makarova dismissed Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
On Wednesday Agnieszka Radwanska and Errani will lock horns, Germany’s world Nos 14 Angelique Kerber (v Yulia Beygelzimer) and 19 Sabine Lisicki (v Zarina Diyas) are in action and Swiss rising teen Belinda Bencic will face German Julia Gorges.
Muguruza and Halep will also square off for a place in the quarters.
ATP Barcelona
Defending champion Kei Nishikori cruised into the third round of the ATP Barcelona Open with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili on Tuesday.
The Japanese top seed was making his season debut on clay but was largely untroubled by the world No 85 as he broke early in each set and faced just one break point on his own serve before sealing victory.
Nishikori will face either Portugal’s Joao Sousa or 15th seed Santiago Giraldo in the last 16 on Thursday.
Second seed Rafael Nadal will begin his quest for a ninth title in Barcelona in a rematch of his quarter-final defeat to Nicolas Almagro last year on Wednesday.
Almagro only had to play three games to book his place in Round 3 as Paolo Lorenzi retired when trailing 0-3 in the first set.
Nadal’s defeat to Almagro last year ended the 14-time grand slam champion’s 41-match winning streak at the tournament stretching back to 2003.
“He is a great player and always a dangerous rival,” Nadal said on Monday.
“I have to play my own game and make it difficult for Nico.”
Seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut and fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo also booked their places in round three with straight sets victories over Thomaz Belluci and Mikhail Kukushkin respectively.
ATP Bucharest
Former world No 8 Janko Tipsarevic will get a chance to prove his comeback is for real against Gilles Simon after reaching the second round of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy on Tuesday.
Tipsarevic will face the top-seeded Frenchman Simon on Thursday after getting past Italian Thoms Fabbiano in straight sets.
He was joined in the second round by seeds Jiri Veseley (No 7) who advanced after winning an 11-9 second-set tie break against Diego Schwartzman, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (No 5), who breezed past Lorenzo Giustino, dropping only two games in the first set, and Simone Bolelli (No 8), who overcame a first-set tie break against Andrey Golubev to win in two.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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.”
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
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
