Bengaluru, April 6 -- Second seed Oliver Crawford of the United States clinched the SM Krishna Memorial Open title at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium here on Sunday after top-seeded Briton Jay Clarke was forced to retire midway through the final due to an ankle injury.
Crawford was off to a flying start, racing to a 4-0 lead within the first 25 minutes of the contest. The 25-year-old American saved a breakpoint in his opening service game and then capitalised on a double fault by Clarke in the second to break serve. He followed it up with a love hold and another break to assert early dominance.
Clarke, who was contesting his fourth final in as many weeks and came into the tournament after back-to-back titles in Shenzhen and Luan, took a med...