Luka Mikrut is living out his childhood dream while honouring the memory of his late father.
The 21-year-old, who is “playing the best tennis of his life”, recently climbed to a career-high No. 159 in the PIF ATP Rankings, in part thanks to his two ATP Challenger Tour trophies earned in the past three months. He also reached the Valencia Challenger final in his most recent outing, extending his run to 19 wins in his past 22 matches.
However, Mikrut is doing it without his father, Mijo, who passed away in 2023.
“He had bad cancer,” Mikrut told ATPTour.com. “He was sick for one year. When they first found out what it was, they told him maybe one or two months. He pulled it out to one year. But it was very hard. Those situations really hit hard.
“Even before he died, he was really sick and when you are younger, you don’t think about it. But when this happens in the family, you start to think about this stuff a bit and it’s not easy.”
Mikrut fondly recalls the days he and his father travelled to tournaments together, with Mijo meticulously handling every detail, from organising the coaching plan, booking flights and more. Now, Mikrut is handling that aspect alone. Mikrut’s life on the road has not been the same without his father, whose absence he deeply felt while competing shortly after his passing.
“One day it was his funeral and the next day I went to a tournament and I played the day after,” said Mikrut. “I had no chance to do anything.”
There was a moment last year when the emotions came rushing back.
“When I was playing Davis Cup for the second time, I was there and at one point it just hit, ‘He doesn’t know it’s Davis Cup time, it’s in Croatia’,” Mikrut said. “It hits hard.”
But to understand Mikrut is to know his resilience. A fitting quote from his favourite movie, Rocky V, is even etched on his right bicep: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward.”
Those words are a source of strength for Mikrut, who said that tattoo was the most painful of the seven he sports.
“Every ink drop was worth it,” he said with a laugh. “Sometimes I remember it and it gets me going, gets me hyped and gives me some extra energy you need to win. You see Rocky in every movie, he is getting beaten a lot and somehow he wins it. Sometimes, actually very often, it’s like that in tennis.”
A native of Split — Croatia’s second-largest city — Mikrut began playing tennis aged five. His tennis-fanatic grandmother owned videotapes and DVDs of classic matches of Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and others. Mikrut’s mother owned a DVD shop in the 2000s. Though DVDs are largely forgotten, those tennis films hold a special place in Mikrut’s heart.
“It’s a bit nostalgic. I used to watch that all day and since I was young I would put the [headband] around my head and imitate that I’m Federer,” Mikrut said. “I don’t watch it anymore, but we still have the player and the tapes. I have one video of Federer and Agassi at the US Open, I don’t know which year, but I used to watch it all day, every day.”
Mikrut honed his game at Tennis Klub Split, a renowned breeding ground for Croatian talent that has produced stars including Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic. Dino Prizmic, a contender for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF also trained there. There is a proud tennis legacy in Split, the hometown of the late Nikola Pilic, who passed away in September.
“We are not a big country, there’s not many of us in tennis compared to other countries like Italy, France or the United States, but we are doing good results,” said Mikrut.
<img alt=”Luka Mikrut at the Braga Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/10/06/15/32/mikrut-bragach-2025.jpg” />
Luka Mikrut at the Braga Challenger. Credit: Eduardo Oliveira/FPT
The champion of this year’s Como and Braga Challenger events, Mikrut received congratulatory texts from the former No. 2 Ivanisevic following his triumphs. Mikrut idolised Federer and countryman Ivanisevic as a child.
“[Goran] was the first Croatian to win a Grand Slam,” Mikrut said. “He is some inspiration because you have a guy from your city win on the big scene and you can see that you can do it yourself.”
Mikrut cannot quite pinpoint what has sparked his sudden rise — a surge of more than 200 spots in the PIF ATP Rankings over the past two months — but one thing is certain: every step forward is a way to make his father proud.
“He always pushed me and I always liked to hear from him that he was proud,” Mikrut said. “And I believe he would be very proud now.”
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