TENNIS TALK

DECEMBER 16 TO 18

Some of the biggest names in tennis are in the capital for the 13th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, including Britain’s shining new star

It says something about Emma Raducanu’s status in the world right now that the announcement of her appearance at the upcoming Mubadala World

Tennis Championship garnered more column inches than news of Rafael Nadal’s attendance at the Abu Dhabi tournament.

Even the presence of a 20-time Grand Slam winner who could one day become the sport’s greatest, has been somewhat drowned out with the exciting news that the 19-year-old Raducanu would play the UAE capital for the first time this December.

Since her astonishing win at the US Open in September when, aged 18, she became the first qualifier, male or female, to win a Grand Slam in the

Open era, the youngest Grand Slam winner since Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004, and the first Brit to win a women’s Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977, Raducanu’s life has, to put it mildly, taken a new direction.

There was the Met Gala in New York at which she wore a gown by Chanel, then the world premiere of the James Bond flick at the Royal Albert Hall in London when she dazzled in Dior. Raducanu, who just turned 19, played tennis with Kate Middleton in front of a swarm of press photographers and later inked a deal to be the face of luxury jewellery brand Tiffany and Co. Inevitably, a story on the photogenic player soon followed in the glossy pages of Vogue magazine.

Raducanu’s career earnings stood at around the nottoo-shabby $300,000 mark before the US Open but after her historic win over Leylah Fernandez, Raducanu departed Flushing Meadows with not only the trophy and a new global army of fans, but also a cheque for $2.5m. Raducanu’s age, her ability to speak English, Romanian and Mandarin, and her arrival on the scene just as former great, Serena Williams, fades, are all seen as key factors why the British player could become the next household name of world tennis.

But, of course, in order to do that, Raducanu must keep winning tournaments, something the one-time queen of the court, Martina Navratilova, believes is highly possible. “A star is born,” said the legendary winner of 18 Grand Slams after Raducanu’s US Open win. “It’s ridiculous how well she has done.” Another Queen, Elizabeth II, sent her congratulations and called Raducanu’s win “a remarkable achievement,” while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge labelled the triumph “historic.”

In her first match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi this month, the 21st world ranked Raducanu will face 2020 Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, the world number 17, in a rematch of their quarter-final at the US Open. John Lickrish is CEO of event organiser Flash Entertainment and said the encounter is “set to be the most intriguing women’s match in the championship’s history.” See you all at the courts.

THE COMPLETE LINE-UP

FEMALE PLAYER FIELD

Emma Raducanu

GREAT BRITAIN Current World Ranking: World No.21 Fast fact: Victory at the US Open earned her the British No.1 ranking

Belinda Bencic

SWITZERLAND Current World Ranking: World No.17 Fast fact: At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Bencic won gold in singles and silver in doubles with partner Viktorija Golubic

Rafael Nadal

SPAIN

Current World Ranking:

World No.5 Fast fact: The defending champ of Mubadala World Tennis Championship

Denis Shapovalov

CANADA

Current World Ranking:

World No.19 Fast fact: Shapovalov’s idol growing up was tennis ace Roger Federer

MALE PLAYER FIELD

Dominic Thiem

AUSTRIA

Current World Ranking:

World No.12 Fast fact: This marks his third appearance at MWTC

Andrey Rublev

RUSSIA

Current World Ranking:

World No.5 Fast fact: Rublev defeated countryman Medvedev at the 2021 Cincinnati finals

Casper Ruud

NORWAY

Current World Ranking:

World No.8 Fast fact: Ruud is the first Norwegian to win an ATP title

HOT OFF THE PRESS

FINAL PLAYER ANNOUNCED!

Andy Murray

GREAT BRITAIN

Current World Ranking:

World No.134 Fast fact: Murray won the inaugural MWTC in 2009 beating Nadal in the finals

OFF-COURT ACTION

Four reasons why the Mubadala World Tennis Championship 2021 is so much more than a tennis championship

1The Tennis Village is enormous

This year’s Tennis Village provides unrivalled access to top players with exclusive meet and greets, question and answer sessions, autograph signings, and sponsored activations.

3Food trucks create a foodie festival vibe

Look out for the fleet of food trucks courtesy of local and regional brands, plus there are plenty of open picnic areas where fans can sit back, relax and soak up the atmosphere.

4Player clinics

Top players will give spectators a rare opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade up close.

2The Mubadala Interactive Zone is back

Make sure you visit the Mubadala Interactive Zone, where everyone can take part in a variety of fun tennis-themed activities to win unbeatable prizes.

December 16 to 18

a Mubadala World Tennis Championship, International Tennis Centre, Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi, adults Dhs100, children Dhs50. mubadalawtc.com

THE YASALAM AFTER-RACE CONCERTS HEADLINERS

PRODUCED BY FLASH ENTERTAINMENT

A TOP-SELLING US SINGER, A BRITISH RAPPER, A GRAMMY-WINNING SCOT, PLUS A LEGENDARY ROCK BAND ARE YOUR ENTERTAINMENT AT THIS YEAR’S F1 WEEKEND

Yasalam, the capital’s favourite music festival, held around the highly anticipated Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021, returns for 2021 to the stunning Etihad Park. The adrenaline-fuelled concert series is back with a captivating calendar of worldclass entertainment across four action-packed days from December 9 to 12. Yasalam 2021, the 12th edition of this hugely popular festival, will accelerate the excitement, bringing together the best of motorsport and music. See you at the start line…

DEC 9 KHALID

Eight things you need to know about the US singer

1He was named one of Time’s Most Influential People in 2019. ★

2He released his first single, Location on SoundCloud in 2016 while still at high school – it went five-times platinum. ★

3Kylie Jenner played a key part in accelerating Khalid’s rise when she shared his song Location on Snapchat. The result: 280 million plays on YouTube. 4 He’s been nominated for six Grammys and has won six Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award.

5Khalid, 23, has collaborated with big stars such as Normani, Halsey and Benny Blanco, Billie Eilish and Shawn Mendes.

6In 2020, Khalid was named the youngest artist to surpass 15 billion streams on Spotify. 7 His 2021 summer single, New Normal, made its debut when Khalid performed it for the crew of Richard Branson’s maiden Virgin Galactic space flight upon their successful landing. ★

8His favourite road trip song? Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.

DEC 10 STORMZY

How the big-hearted British rapper is using his platform for good “I AM STILL LEARNING HOW TO BE A MAN AND STILL FIGURING OUT HOW TO GROW INTO THE PERSON I NEED TO BE”

With hit albums, shelves of awards, a bank balance reported to be in the region of Dhs95m, legions of devoted fans and a career-high gig at Glastonbury already in the bag, Stormzy should be lowering his six-feet-five frame into an armchair and reflecting on the glory of his achievements. But that’s not his style.

Fuelled by a desire to do good and help others (just look at his scholarship programme that funds black students’ tuition at Cambridge University), Stormzy refuses to rest and feels a duty as a role model.

“Being so championed by my community, I feel like everyone’s put me on this pedestal, everyone’s put me on top of the world,” the grime artist admitted to Time magazine. “I know it’s my purpose to just shine a light where I can, do something where I can, just whatever I can, in whatever way, shape or form.”

Born in south London 28 years ago, Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. announced his talent through a series of YouTube videos. His breakthrough album Gang Signs & Prayer arrived in 2017, followed by Heavy is the Head two years later. His machine gun delivery and socially conscious lyrics that highlighted uncomfortable truths to do with inequality in society and the inadequacies of politicians propelled him to the top table of British music. A dry wit didn’t hurt either. “I’m intelligent,” he grins. “That’s why there’s always a bit of a smugness to me.” His ambition was clear to see. “I find it strange and uncomfortable to aim for anything less than the greatest,” said Stormzy in 2017. “That doesn’t even make sense for me. If I was going to be an engineer or I was going to be a baker or I was going to be a fireman, why would I not aim to eventually be the greatest at my job?”

Quickly, Stormzy realised he had a platform from which he could help. When he admitted to suffering from depression in a TV interview in 2017, it was seen as a huge step forward in removing the stigma of talking about mental health among young men. “For me, it was a realisation of how fragile we are as humans in the most beautiful way possible,” said Stormzy of his depressive periods. “I feel like I always come across confidently and happy, and I’ve always made sure that I don’t promote [the] negative. I just present myself in a positive way so I can spread that. So people will be looking at me, thinking I don’t go through nothing. So for me to let people know, ‘No, I do. I do go through that’. I thought that was important for people to know that.”

This kind of disarming honesty, described in such articulate detail, is why Stormzy has made such an impact – both musically and culturally. “I’ve made a body of work that is an honest reflection of my truth and who I am,” he said last year. “I have poured my soul into it. Truth is a universal thing. It allows people to connect to it.” There’s no doubt fans in Abu Dhabi will feel that connection when he performs this month. Thrilling music, razor sharp lyrics, and a massive stage presence are what you see on the surface at a Stormzy gig, but underneath, there is human depth.

“I am still learning how to be a man and still figuring out how to grow into the person I need to be,” he wrote on Instagram. “But within all of that confusion and all the juggling of being a human and trying to be a superhuman – I have purpose.”

DEC 11 LEWIS CAPALDI

Buckle up for a wild night with the Scottish singer

Lewis Capaldi’s PR team must spend their days shrugging their shoulders in powerless resignation as their superstar client tweets another one liner mocking his abs, proclaiming himself to be as handsome as Shawn Mendes, or posting selfies on the toilet at the Grammy Awards.

If you want a polished pop star with a Dhs500 haircut, white teeth and a mediatrained approach to interviews, then Capaldi is not your guy. Remember, this is a man who called himself “the Scottish Beyonce” on a billboard in London.

“The music should be serious, and everything else should be fun because it is fun,” explains Capaldi, who logs another extraordinary feat in his short career by headlining an F1 gig in Abu Dhabi this month.

It’s almost a year since the Someone You Loved singer first played the UAE, delighting around 3,000 fans at the Al Majaz Amphitheatre in Sharjah. This month, the good-humoured Scot is back, playing to a vast Formula One after-party crowd, who will be treated to plenty of what he calls ‘blether’ in between a set of heartfelt songs that have impressed the likes of Sir Elton John.

Capaldi has spent 2021 polishing his sophomore album, taking the radical step of cancelling live shows to focus on the record. “I really want to make sure whatever I put out next is the absolute best it can be, partly for my own sanity, because I’m going to have to sing these songs every night for the next few years on tour, but ultimately for all of you who made the first album everything it was,” he explained. “Despite having all this extra time to write, all the Covid restrictions have made it harder to go and record stuff I’ve been working on or even be around all the people I loved working with on the first album.”

When it arrives, the album will be a follow-up to his 2019 debut Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, which enabled Capaldi to sell out a UK arena tour before the record even came out. “You cannot fathom some of the stuff when it is going on,” he says of his astonishing – and rapid – success. “It’s just daft. I sometimes worry that people think I’m used to it. But I’m not. It’s wild.”

When asked to pinpoint why his songs have made such a mark on fans, Capaldi is mystified. “I’ve got no clue. ‘What right do I have to be playing arenas?’ is what goes through my head. Impostor syndrome. I’m not better than any of these people, I’m not better at writing songs or singing.”

After smashing away at drums and guitars aged two, the now 25-yearold Glaswegian learned his craft singing in pubs, developing a strong, raspy voice that many liken to Joe Cocker. He was discovered by a music manager on SoundCloud and in 2017 released an EP which secured him a supporting slot on tours with ex-One Direction member Niall Horan and later Sam Smith.

But it was in 2018 when things escalated and Someone You Loved became Capaldi’s breakthrough single, hogging the number one spot in the UK charts for seven weeks. American audiences then helped the song reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2020, Capaldi received a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year (Someone You Loved) and four Brit Award nominations, eventually winning two for Song of the Year (Someone You Loved) and Best New Artist.

“You can’t accept this as normality,” says Capaldi. “This is very weird. I’m so convinced it’s not going to last, this surely cannot go on.”

Perhaps Capaldi should be prepared for the eventuality that it might indeed go on for quite some time.

DEC 12 FOO FIGHTERS:

BY THE NUMBERS

The American rockers to close Abu Dhabi F1 with an epic rock show

27

The band was founded 27 years ago in 1994 in Seattle, Washington by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the death of Kurt Cobain.

There are six current members in The Foo Fighters – lead vocalist Dave Grohl, plus Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett (guitar and backing vocals), Nate Mendel (bass), Taylor Hawkins (drums, percussion) and Rami Jaffee (keyboard).6

1

Their performance at the Yasalam after-race concerts marks their debut concert in the MENA region, and caps a run of sold-out arena dates this year.

114

The apartment number Grohl and Kurt Cobain lived together in, which Grohl once described as ‘chaos’. The full address was 114 North Pear Street in Seattle.

12

They’ve won 12 Grammy awards, holding the record for most wins in the Best Rock Album category.

409

Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time back in September, with Foo Fighters’ smash hit Everlong taking the 409th spot. Should have been far higher up the list, if you ask us.

10

They’ve released a whopping 10 studio albums, five of which reached number one in the UK album charts, including their latest album Medicine at Midnight.

GET YOUR TICKETS

Feel the noise at Etihad Park...

GOLDEN CIRCLE UPGRADES

The sun may set on the F1 action each evening but the fun doesn’t stop there. Yasalam After-Race concerts are exclusive to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tickets holders, and prices start at Dhs660.

All ticketholders will have access to the Thursday concert, headlined by Khalid. Single-day ticketholders will have access to the concert on the day for which they have a Grand Prix ticket. Those with two-day tickets get access to the Saturday and Sunday concerts as well as Thursday. Three-day ticket holders can see all the concerts.

Following recent government updates, Etihad Park – the largest outdoor venue in the Middle East – will return to full capacity for the Yasalam After-Race concerts, marking the first event to be hosted inside the exciting new venue.

“We’re thrilled to bring world-class entertainment and our Yasalam After-Race concerts back in style with this year’s line-up of global superstars. It further highlights the international celebration of culture that we experience regularly here in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, and we look forward to welcoming the world to Yas Island.” – John Lickrish, CEO of Flash Entertainment

Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 ticket holders are exclusively eligible for Golden Circle upgrades, providing the best access to After-Race Concerts, with a fasttrack entry, dedicated beverage points and front-row access to your favourite artists. Upgrades start at just Dhs195 (Khalid), Dhs295 (Stormzy), Dhs295 (Lewis Capaldi), Dhs395 (Foo Fighters), and Dhs945 for Golden Circle upgrades to all artist concerts. To purchase your upgrade, call: 800 (YAS) 927.

q For more details, visit yasalam.ae