Alexei Popyrin has felt it click, now he wants it to stick during a deep run at his cherished Australian Open.
While many rate the Sydneysider's surge to world No.23 last year a significant career breakthrough, Popyrin views it differently.
"I don't think that was necessarily a turning point," Popyrin told reporters on Friday.
"I think it was just an accumulation of all the hard work we've been putting in over the last three years.
"It just all sort of clicked after the Olympics, starting from Montreal.
"It just kind of clicked and everything just felt great when we were out there on the court, I kind of knew what I was doing."
After a third-round appearance at the Paris Olympics, Popyrin went to Montreal and became the first Australian to win an ATP Masters 1000 title since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003.
Three weeks later, he defeated Novak Djokovic in the third round at the US Open before losing a four-setter to American Frances Tiafo.
"As I said after Montreal, I think the top guys, when they find that sort of click and they find that sort of confidence that they have, they just continue with it for the rest of their career," Popyrin said.
"That's what makes them stay top, and continuing the hard work behind the scenes.
"They just come out on the court with that sort of confidence. That's something that I have got to try to stick with me.
"Towards the back end of last year, I felt like I sort of did that during a few matches. I have got to do it more consistently this year."
Popyrin's hot streak justified the 25-year-old's belief that he has a game to mix it with the best.
"We kind of knew what I'm capable of because I show it in practice every now and then," he said.
"I have showed it in matches sporadically in the past. I've beaten top-10 players, I have had good wins.
"Also I've had losses that I shouldn't have had.
"I keep saying that Montreal was a huge tournament, not only because it was a Masters 1000 and I won it, but because if I hadn't won a match in Montreal and Cincinnati, I would have been ranked 90 in the world.
"Not many people know that ... that's the pressure you play with in your head.
"The mentality that you try and have is to put that away and just focus on the current, on the present."
The present task for Popyrin is going deeper than ever at the Australian Open, where he's made third-round exits three times.
He holds a seeding - 25th - at Melbourne Park for the first time but said his mindset remained the same.
"It's definitely doing the same things and working the same way and just trying to get past that third-round hump - I've been in the third round a few times already," he said.
"We're just trying to make it to the second week for the first time here.
"That's the main goal for the year - to make it further in slams, make second weeks of slams."
