Day: 16 April 2019

Princess Charlene of Monaco touched down at Turffontein Racecourse on April 13.

The Zimbabwean-born princess, hailing from Benoni, hosted a Royal Race Day in Turffontein which saw Grade One HSH Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes for fillies and mares over 1 600m, with R1-million up for grabs.

There were also two Maiden Plates, of which one was for fillies and mares only, with total stakes of R250 000, all funded by her. Jockey Gareth Wright, who rode Camphoratus, won the R1-m stakes.

The princess wasn’t only focused on the race, but also gave R50 000 to Gugulethu Primary School and R50 000 to Lesabe Primary School, beneficiaries from Daveyton and Benoni respectively.

Gugulethu headmaster Thobile Mavundla was excited to see her school being named as a beneficiary.

Keen to avoid a second loss to the German at ATP Masters 1000 level this year, Novak Djokovic had to work hard for his 850th tour-level win on Court Rainier III, beating Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 36 minutes. Djokovic saved 12 of 16 break points to improve to 9-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Kohlschreiber.

“I had ups and downs and in a way felt a bit rusty on the court. I had a tough opponent of course,” Djokovic said at a press conference. “Philipp beat me in Indian Wells. It was a match that happened less than a month ago, so of course it was in the back of my mind a bit.”

“I thought I should have maybe stepped in and played a bit more aggressive in the second set, but credit to him for mixing up the pace and playing well.”

“I’ll take this win. Hopefully I can play slightly better in the next round, because if I want to go deep in the tournament, I definitely have to up my game.”

Djokovic is attempting to claim his third title at the Monte-Carlo Country Club this week. The 31-year-old has reached four championship matches at this event, lifting the trophy in 2013 (d. Nadal) and 2015 (d. Berdych).

The top seed was put under pressure early in the opening set, but found the corners and benefitted from a mid-court Kohlschreiber forehand error to escape from 15/40 down at 2-2 and 3-3. Djokovic claimed the only break of the set at 4-3 with consistent depth from the baseline, extracting errors from his opponent before serving out the opener to love after 45 minutes.

Neither man was able to find comfort on serve in the second set, with seven consecutive games being won by the returning player. Djokovic recovered from a break down on three occasions to serve at 4-5, but was broken for the fourth time in a row after a series of forehand errors.

“In a way it’s good I got to spend two-and-a-half hours on the court in my first opening match in the clay court season,” said Djokovic. “This surface is very demanding physically.

“Tactically, as well, you have to construct the point, be more patient [and] put more spin into the ball… I think from the positive side, it’s actually good that I got to have that much match play, because I did play a lot of practice sets and so forth, but it’s just completely different [to] when you are nervous and playing an official match.”

In the third round, Djokovic will meet American Taylor Fritz or Diego Schwartzman. Fritz was leading Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 2-0 on Court Rainier III when the Frenchman was forced to retire.

Serge Telle handed to Martin Peronnet, CEO of Monaco Telecom, a letter of intent for the financing of internet security solutions for individuals and professionals: Monaco Care Safety and Monaco Care Password, high-performance services to secure smartphones, computers or tablets.

This commitment of the State alongside the Monegasque operator is part of the policy pursued since 2016 as part of the Principality’s Digital Security Strategy conducted in close collaboration with the AMSN (Monegasque Agency for Digital Security).

The Minister of State said that “the digital must remain at the service of the human, the individuals, the community. It is not a question of restricting freedom but of protecting it. This is one of the goals of our work. And, from this point of view, the commitment of the public authorities is essential.”

Monaco Telecom has been deploying for several months a new service in collaboration with F-Secure, a globally multi-award winning player in the development of Internet security solutions:

Monaco Care Safety will offer security features such as anti-virus, secure browsing, banking protection, location of its equipment and parental protection.

Monaco Care Password will securely store passwords, credit card numbers and other important information.

Five licenses will be offered free of charge to all Ultra Broadband Internet customers and LaBOX Mini or Maxi customers from June. These services will be compatible with different computers (PC, MAC) and operating systems (Android and iOS).

Former Formula 1 driver and Sky F1 pundit Johnny Herbert believes that Red Bull will win the Monaco Grand Prix this season and Max Verstappen can become world champion.

“I think Max can already win the championship this year,” Herbert said to Motorsport.com.

“We saw that Red Bull – Honda is not in bad shape. Max was right behind Lewis Hamilton. They still have to do something, because the Honda engine has to prove itself even more. In terms of chassis, Mercedes seemed to be slightly better in Melbourne, but in Bahrain, it can be completely different again. I am sure they will win in Monaco.”

This weekend marked the first Honda podium since 2008. They’ve suddenly upped their performance over the previous two years and Herbert isn’t surprised.

“I am very impressed by the speed of his development. Max received a lot of criticism in Brazil about the incident with Ocon. He should have given Esteban more room, but I think that’s nonsense. Ocon was wrong there.

“Max may not be the perfect driver yet, but he is young and learns fast. He is absolutely capable of winning the championship.”

2018 was a year that broke all records for the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, which achieved its best environmental results since the implementation and monitoring of its ISO 14001 standard in October 2008.

All these green indicators confirm a fundamental goal that remains unchanged: to reduce the impact on the environment of the general maintenance of the building and of the events that take place within it, focusing primarily on sustainable and optimised water and energy management, energy management, waste sorting and recycling, an eco-responsible purchasing policy, good risk management, as well as on an active and event-driven communication, such as that around the meeting for Papuan Chief Mundiya Kepanga.

With a general building attendance bordering on 250,000 visitors per year, the ratio between annual water consumption and the increasing inflow of visitors has never been so low.

The decline in annual electricity consumption is also more than remarkable: for the first time, it has dropped below 8 million kWh (7.69).

Thus, after commissioning a task force and brand new high performance equipment in 2017, a special effort was made on the air conditioning system. New seawater exchange control valves on the Grimaldi Forum’s own thermo-refrigeration production, as well as a change in the control system for this production have led to additional savings of 5.4% on our electricity consumption in 2018.

While paper consumption has been stable, the latest good news has to do with the sorting rate. The objective of 50% of sorted and upgraded waste in 2018 has been met and exceeded! It was 44.5% in 2016, of 48.5% in 2017, and of 52.9% in 2018.

As it remains the priority area for the Grimaldi Forum’s ISO 14001 certification, sorting is at the center of many new initiatives, aimed in particular at reducing the use of plastic in general. However, we should remember that this active sorting policy was gradually introduced in many sectors that produce significant results: 150 tons of wood, 21 tons of brown cardboard, 28 tons of glass, 24 tons of paper, etc.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Monaco watch made by the Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer, and made famous by Steve McQueen.

Launched in 1969, the Monaco’s arrival was an eye-catching timepiece because it was the first square, water-resistant automatic chronograph.

Jack Heuer, the great grandson of Edouard Heuer, who started the Swiss timepiece maker in 1860, named the watch design after the most glamorous event on the F1 calendar.

Steve McQueen immortalised the Monaco watch when he wore it in the classic 1970 Hollywood racing film Le Mans.

In honour of the golden anniversary of this marvellous model, the Swiss watchmaker will be conducting a grand pop-up exhibition featuring beloved heritage pieces flown in from the brand’s museum at La Chaux-de-Fonds, the world capital of the watchmaking industry.

This includes specially curated models selected by TAG Heuer Heritage Director, Catherine Eberle-Devaux; and new versions of the legendary original which were revealed during this year’s edition of Baselworld.