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

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Svrcina recalls 16-year-old Sinner: “You could definitely see the potential”

Svsina provides exclusive insight ahead of Indian Wells showdown with Sinner

March 6, 2026

In May 2018, 16-year-old Jannik Sinner played the last match of his teenage career in Milan, where he faced Czech Jonas Forejtek in the third round. There was another Czech player in the crowd that day, Dalibor Svrcina.

“He’s playing well, but you wouldn’t tell him how special he is. You can definitely see his potential, but he’s still young, thin, and he’s going to make some mistakes,” Svsina told ATPTour.com. “It’s absolutely amazing to see the progress of Carlos and Yannick because I’ve known them since the youth level and they really weren’t that far ahead.

“So if you’re progressing and doing the right things, you can progress in your own way, which is really, really exciting.”

On Friday, Svsina will challenge Sinner for the first time in the second round of this year’s first ATP Masters 1000 event: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

“He knew who I was. Obviously, I knew him, but we never practiced,” Svsina said. “We’ve known each other since we were teenagers. He didn’t play a lot of junior games, but we’ve met. I’ve known him since he was 15 or 16, so we’ve said hello to each other, but we’ve never trained with each other.”

The 23-year-old will now face off against the PIF ATP Ranking No. 2 across the net for the first time, having never previously clashed with a top-10 opponent. Svsina is well aware that he will be tested in the pair’s first Lexus ATP head-to-head matchup.

“I think he’s very consistent, plays fast, takes up time. He can basically do everything,” Svsina said. “You can see that before, maybe a year or two ago, his shot didn’t have that much variation, like Carlos’ lob.

“But you can see he’s trying to improve on that. He’s trying to hit some small balls. You can see they’re always trying to improve. So, basically, I’ll see on Friday what magic it does, but let’s see. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Czechs took inspiration from Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz as they continued to reach new heights. Svsina is very happy at the moment because he finds ways to improve every day.

“You can go to the gym, you can work on yourself mentally and physically. That’s a part of tennis that you rarely see in players because most of the time what you see is how they practice, how they play,” Svsina said. “But you don’t see what they do at home or in their daily lives. So I enjoy that.”

The world No. 109, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 86 in November, has recently begun competing in larger tournaments. Less than a year ago, he faced former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in Toronto and then played him again in Shanghai.

“Before the match against Medvedev in Toronto, I hadn’t played a lot of these games against top players, and now I’ve played against Medvedev twice,” Svsina said. “I played Bublik. Now I get to play Sinner, so for me to get that experience is really, really good.”

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

The Ostrava-born right-hander enjoys spending time at home with friends in nature, especially in the nearby mountains. So Svsina marveled at the mountains during that tournament and was preparing for the most important match of his life, with the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens as a backdrop, with the mountains as a backdrop.

“I really love it. This place is amazing,” Svsina said. “The competition was great, so I’m happy to get through the qualifying rounds and the first round. I’m happy that I played well and it will be great to play against Janik in the next round.”