Every year, as surely as tennis shoes squeak on a freshly surfaced court, the questions begin once again about the future of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
The lyrics have become as familiar as a holiday tune.
When will the tournament expand? Will it become an official ATP event? Will women someday be added?
Tournament organisers politely reaffirm that they have considered every option, all the price points involved, potential scheduling conflicts, weighed the infrastructure issues and myriad other variables, and dutifully presented them to the title sponsors.
So far, little has changed, which might be for the best.
Indeed, let us hear it for the minimalist approach.
Despite nudges from some quarters to broaden the event, the tournament completed its sixth iteration on Saturday night with few systemic tweaks and, for that, it has thrived, not suffered.
Arguably the most professionally staged sports event on the island, the reality is, if the tournament expanded, there is no guarantee it would be anything other than diluted.
The six male players who competed over the weekend all were ranked in the world top 10, and for the first time, the top four were all in the field. The number of ATP events that can make that claim are few.
“Now the people know about the competition,” world No 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga said. “This is the only competition outside the ATP to have five or six guys from the top 10, which is just incredible.”
In other words, the elite players want to be here, both for the competition it provides ahead of the first major, the Australian Open in two weeks, and the other event inducements and amenities.
If the field were beefed up in any significant amount, it would outgrow the Zayed Sports City facility, which does not have a secondary court capable of handling a crowd in excess of perhaps 300.
A bigger concern is that there is no guarantee that the same players would show up. As it stands, the six men who appear are assured of at least two pre-season matches against players they are likely to face over and over in the semi-finals and finals of the season to follow.
Wild cards, qualifiers and political appointees are for the other tournaments.
Tsonga, for instance, played Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal on successive days – all ranked in the world top four. Not a bad pre-season primer.
Nadal endorsed giving the event an official stamp of approval, though that process is usually more complicated than it sounds. The tournament would surely lose some organisational autonomy to the ATP.
“I really hope that’s an option,” Nadal said of potentially becoming a sanctioned ATP event. “Abu Dhabi is a place that is all the time getting better and better.”
So why derail a good thing by adding more freight to the train? The money currently expended by sponsors to attract top-flight players would likely be folded into the purse, which lessens the chance of drawing the best players across the board.
Mid-sized ATP events would celebrate having Abu Dhabi’s player line-up. For instance, the ATP opens its season this week with events in two locales. The tournament in Brisbane has one player from the world top 10, while Qatar has five – combined, that is the same number that just breezed through the UAE.
Moreover, the Mubadala tournament, played in a 5,000-seat venue, is an ideal mix of big-league bombast and intimacy, where kids collect autographs and play in daily clinics alongside the best players in the game, players who might not be predisposed to stand around posing for dozens of photos if it were an official event with a bundle of ranking points and prize money on offer.
The underlying inference is that since it is an exhibition, those no longer eligible for the winner-take-all US$250,000 (Dh918,300) prize lose their edge. Some players take the week more seriously than others, but they are all here for a reason – to ramp it up for the new season.
To the repeat invitees, the Mubadala has become the de facto opener. The world No 2 Novak Djokovic, who won his third straight Mubadala title on Saturday night, is not playing again until the Australian Open.
“It’s not an ATP tournament, but everybody wants to play well and start with a positive tournament,” Nadal said before his opening match. “It will be a 100 per cent real test.”
What we know for certain is this: the 2014 event will actually happen in 2015, January 1 to 3, to be exact.
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WandaVision
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Directed by: Matt Shakman
Rating: Four stars
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The biog
Favourite books: 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life' by Jane D. Mathews and ‘The Moment of Lift’ by Melinda Gates
Favourite travel destination: Greece, a blend of ancient history and captivating nature. It always has given me a sense of joy, endless possibilities, positive energy and wonderful people that make you feel at home.
Favourite pastime: travelling and experiencing different cultures across the globe.
Favourite quote: “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders” - Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
Favourite Movie: Mona Lisa Smile
Favourite Author: Kahlil Gibran
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The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
The specs
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Day 3, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage, the Sri Lanka pace bowler, has had to play a lot of cricket to earn a shot at the top level. The 29-year-old debutant first played a first-class game 11 years ago. His first Test wicket was one to savour, bowling Pakistan opener Shan Masood through the gate. It set the rot in motion for Pakistan’s batting.
Stat of the day – 73 Haris Sohail took 73 balls to hit a boundary. Which is a peculiar quirk, given the aggressive intent he showed from the off. Pakistan’s batsmen were implored to attack Rangana Herath after their implosion against his left-arm spin in Abu Dhabi. Haris did his best to oblige, smacking the second ball he faced for a huge straight six.
The verdict One year ago, when Pakistan played their first day-night Test at this ground, they held a 222-run lead over West Indies on first innings. The away side still pushed their hosts relatively close on the final night. With the opposite almost exactly the case this time around, Pakistan still have to hope they can salvage a win from somewhere.
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.”
Poland Statement
All people fleeing from Ukraine before the armed conflict are allowed to enter Poland. Our country shelters every person whose life is in danger - regardless of their nationality.
The dominant group of refugees in Poland are citizens of Ukraine, but among the people checked by the Border Guard are also citizens of the USA, Nigeria, India, Georgia and other countries.
All persons admitted to Poland are verified by the Border Guard. In relation to those who are in doubt, e.g. do not have documents, Border Guard officers apply appropriate checking procedures.
No person who has received refuge in Poland will be sent back to a country torn by war.
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
