Oliver Crawford beats US-teammate Zane Khan to win the $15K Pune ITF tourney

PUNE Walking out in the dry heat of Pune to play tennis or going to the Poona Club golf course to enjoy a few golfing sessions, Oliver Crawford from the USA has enjoyed his two-week stay in the city

PUNE Walking out in the dry heat of Pune to play tennis or going to the Poona Club golf course to enjoy a few golfing sessions, Oliver Crawford from the USA has enjoyed his two-week stay in the city. Winning a trophy on the penultimate day makes his trip memorable.

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The 21-year-old Crawford required an hour and eight minutes to defeat country-mate Zane Khan 6-3, 6-0 in the $15K KPIT–MSLTA ITF men’s tennis championships at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts on Sunday.

“It is not that hot. It is dry heat and it is not that bad. I am used to tougher conditions where I play in Florida, which is very humid,” says Crawford on getting acclimated to Pune’s weather conditions with a maximum temperature of between 36 degrees Celsius and 38 degrees Celsius during the tournament week.

“This is my favourite week in India. I am heading to New Delhi to play a $15k ITF on Monday,” said Crawford.

Coming in a week ahead of the tournament helped Crawford improve his serve and returns on the quicker Deccan Gymkhana courts.

“I focused on serve and return and handled both of them in a much better way than the previous two tournaments. These courts are quicker so the emphasis on serve and return was important,” added Crawford who lost in the second rounds at the Indore and Lucknow ITFs respectively.

Crawford, who travelled to Pune without a coach, has due respect for his opponent Zane, and described him as a “wonderful player”.

“I will not say it was an easy final. I will say Zane had played a bunch of matches in row now and I guess it was his 15th (match in a row) and he was a bit tired and was not playing his best tennis. I just stuck to playing the game very aggressively and it worked,” said Crawford after winning his second ITF title.

He had earlier won the ITF title in Santo Domingo (15k) in 2020.

Crawford defeated four Indians players to reach the final – Manish Sureshkumar (semifinal), Arjun Kadhe (quarterfinal), Dev Javia (second round), and Atharva Sharma (first round).

Crawford got $2,160( ₹1,56,500) and 10 ATP points, while the runner-up Zane Khan received $1,272 ( ₹92,000).

180 Covid tests – all negative

The Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association managed to host the Women’s $25k and Men’s 15k in a virus-free environment, as not a single Covid-positive case occurred during the two tournaments.

A total of 35 foreign players and 80 Indian players attended the tournaments and 180 Covid tests were done, all negative.

“We were working hard for the success of these tournaments and even if we had found one positive case, then it could have had the worst impact on the tournament,” said Sunder Iyer All India Tennis Association, joint secretary and MSLTA secretary.

Results:

4-Oliver Crawford (USA)bt 8-Zane Khan (USA)6-3, 6-0.