Crawford gifted a crown

Bengaluru: The various degrees of physical or mental pain one can and cannot endure is a knowledge athletes aren’t taught but forced to learn. When to and how much to push one's body and mind become the fundamentals of a player's career as it evolves. 

Jay Clarke’s situation was much the same coming into the final of the SM Krishna Memorial Open on Sunday here. On the road for eight weeks straight in India and making it to four finals in a row, had the top-seeded Clarke carrying an exhausted and wounded body.

Playing with a troubling right ankle, Great Briton’s Clarke looked subdued from the start of the title round clash against compatriot and second seed Oliver Crawford. As Clarke struggled to keep pace with his opponents intensity, the 26-year-old decided to retire when he was a break point down while trailing 2-5 in the first set which gave Crawford a third consecutive ITF M25 trophy and an overall fourth win of the season. 

“Disappointing finish. Never the way you want to win a match or the tournament,” said Crawford, who collected 25 ATP points and a cheque of USD 4612 for his win here at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium. 

“But I think it was the right decision for Jay to stop and not force anymore damage. He has had a good season thus far, especially here in India,” offered the 25-year-old. 

The lone previous meeting between the World No. 277 Clarke and 293-ranked Crawford in May 2023 was a three-set thriller won by the latter. Going by this statistic and style of play almost mirroring each other, the final was expected to be another close affair. 

While Crawford began aggressively, Clarke’s sluggish body language wasn’t hard to go unnoticed. Though the few unforced errors off Crawford’s racquet gave Clake some easy points, the former used the court at will to race away to a 4-0 lead by breaking his opponent’s first-two service games. 

In the fifth game, Clarke managed to convert on his fifth break point to open the score. Just when it seemed like he would stage a comeback, the top seed called for a medical time out while trailing 1-4 but got back on court to hold serve and reduce the gap to 2-4. 

Crawford, on the other end, meant business. The confidence in his groundstrokes showed as he mixed base line play by occasionally plopping in some drop shots. 

Serving at break point down in the eighth, a limping Clarke’s big serve down the ‘T’ was followed by an awkward forehand return that was punished by Crawford for a winner. With physical pain written all over, Clarke perhaps knew he was stretching it too far and threw in the towel right after.

"It's a shooting pain in the ankle that has been on and off, especially when landing on serves. I didn't want to aggravate it and decided to stop. Twenty matches in four weeks on hard courts is a lot of tennis," said a dejected Clarke, who returns home with two winners and two runners-up trophies.   

Result: Men: Final (singles): 2-Oliver Crawford (GBR) bt 1-Jay Clarke 5-2 (retd).