Dalibor Svrcina remembers 16-year-old Jannik Sinner: ‘You could definitely see the energy’ | ATP Tour

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Svrcina remembers 16-year-old Sinner: ‘He definitely saw the potential’

Svrcina offers exclusive insight ahead of her match with Sinner in Indian Wells

March 06, 2026

In May 2018, 16-year-old Jannik Sinner was playing the last tournament of his young career in Milan when he faced Czech Jonas Forejtek in the third round. In the crowd that day was another Czech player, Dalibor Svrcina.

“He was playing well, but you wouldn’t say he was anything special. You could see the potential, but he was young, young, and he made mistakes,” Svrcina told ATPTour.com. “It’s really amazing to see the progress of Carlos and Jannik, because I knew both of them in juniors and they weren’t really that much earlier.

“So it’s very good to see and encourage that if you improve and do the right things, you can improve in your own way.”

Svrcina will challenge Sinner for the first time on Friday in the second round of the first ATP Masters 1000 event of the year: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

“He knows who I am. I know him, obviously, but we never practiced,” said Svrcina. “We’ve known each other a little bit since we were young, he didn’t play a lot in the juniors but we saw each other. I’ve known him since he was probably 15, 16, so we greet each other but we’ve never trained together.”

The 23-year-old will be up against the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time, having never previously faced a Top-10 opponent. Svrcina is well aware of the test she will face in the first Lexus ATP Head2Head doubles tournament.

“I think he’s tough and he plays very fast, he takes his time. He can do everything,” Svrcina said. “You can see that before, maybe one or two years ago, he didn’t have that much variation in shooting, like Carlos’ shooting.

“But you can see that he’s trying to improve that. He’s trying to play drop shots. You can see that they’re always working on something to improve on. So, really, I’ll see on Friday what’s so amazing about it, but let’s see. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Czech found inspiration in watching Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz continue to new heights. Right now Svrcina finds great joy in knowing that every day, she can find a way to improve.

“You can go to the gym, you can work on yourself, mentally, physically. This is a part of tennis that you don’t see much from players because most of the time you see how they practice, how they play matches,” said Svrcina. But you don’t see the things they do at home or in everyday life. So I really enjoy that.”

World No. 109, which peaked at No. 86 in November, has just started playing big games. Less than a year ago, he faced former World No. Daniil Medvedev. 1 in Toronto before playing him again in Shanghai.

“Before that match in Toronto with Medvedev, I was not able to play many matches like that against top players, and now I have played Medvedev twice,” said Svrcina. “I played Bublik. Now I’m going to play Sinner, so for me, it’s really good to gain this experience.”

Svrcina traveled to the California desert from Acapulco with fitness trainer Thiyagarajan Karunakaran. They flew from Acapulco to Tijuana, crossed the border from Mexico to the United States, and after spending one afternoon in San Diego, headed to Indian Wells.

Ostrava born righty likes to spend time with nature friends at home, especially in the nearby mountains. So it’s only fitting that Svrcina was surprised by the mountains during that drive and is preparing for the biggest match of her life with the mountains behind the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

“I really like it. The place is amazing,” said Svrcina. “The competition is good, so I’m very happy to get through the qualifiers and the first round. I’m very happy that I’m playing well and to be able to play Jannik in the next round is amazing.”