WASHINGTON, December 11, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)
Croatia’s Luka Mikrut is a perfect example of a player who is willing to put in the work on the lower and middle rungs of men’s professional tennis in order to improve his game. During the recently completed 2025 season, Mikrut’s tale was one of steady progress that rewarded him throughout the year.
A 21-year-old native of Split, Mikrut is the latest edition to the ITF ‘Class of 2025’, joining Canada’s Victoria Mboko, Gilles Arnaud Bailly of Belgium and Lilly Tagger of Austria. This week, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is celebrating the achievements of five players who have enjoyed outstanding results on the ITF World Tennis Tour during the 2025 season. The others will be announced later this week.
Currently ranked No. 162, Mikrut’s outstanding season saw him capture four ITF World Tennis Tour titles – including three straight – before going on to win the first two ATP Challenger Tour titles of his career.
“The ITF World Tennis Tour helped me a lot all these years, especially this year,” Mikrut said in a statement.
“At the end of last year, I was struggling with confidence and winning matches. I decided in March to take a step back from Challengers and go to the World Tennis Tour to play more matches and get more wins. To get my confidence back.”
A moment Luka Mikrut will never forget
The 21-year-old claims his maiden Challenger title after beating Ajdukovic 6-3, 7-5 in Como#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/JRruk0HHMk
— ATP Challenger (@ATPChallenger) August 31, 2025
Mikrut won his first title of the season in March at M15 Antalya in Turkey without dropping a set. Then, he strung together a trio of titles consecutively at M15 Opatija in Croatia, M25 Antalya in Turkey, and M15 Dubrovnik in Croatia – all without losing any sets.
By the end of April, Mikrut had won four ITF World Tennis Tour titles – compiling a 15-match winning streak along the way.
Looking back, Mikrut admits that the streak of good form “helped me a lot.” It also allowed him to make some technical improvements to his game, especially his serve.
“The players there are very strong, and way better than they were a few years back. The tournament are way stronger now than they were before,” Mikrut said.
Mikrut added: “I think [the World Tennis Tour provides] a great opportunity for juniors to start playing senior tennis and to play with older guys with lots of different play styles.”
By summer, Mikrut won his first ATP Challenger Tour title at Como 75 in Italy. Then, in October, he won another Challenger crown at Braga 75 in Portugal, which lifted him to a new career-high ranking of No. 159, an mprovement of over 200 places from where he was ranked at the start of the 2025 season. He was also a finalist at Valencia, Spain, the week after he won the Braga title.
Luka Mikrut is the new #BragaOpen champion!
6-3, 6-4 against Vilius Gaubas, who was looking for a second #ATPChallenger title in a row in Portuguese soil.
The 21-year-old Croatian will make his top 200 debut. pic.twitter.com/6iJBesTKxP
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) October 5, 2025
“I think winning those matches on the ITF World Tennis Tour helped me a lot later in the year to put in that work and get those wins at Challengers,” Mikrut said. “Later, I had a great year at the Challengers as well.”
In all competitions, Mikrut compiled an overall win-loss record of 57-20, which included going 25-3 on the ITF World Tennis Tour, which was the best winning percentage of any men’s singles player.
