A strain utterly deserves to be looked at (9)
I believe the answer is:
attention
'a strain' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'utterly deserves to be looked at' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'at' could be 'on' (location) and 'on' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for attention that I've seen before include "Keen students pay this" , "For coverage" , "notice" , "Concentration, heed" , "Awareness - regard" .)