Alex De Minaur had just won his second match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
It was the first time the young Australian had won back-to-back matches since he won the Eastbourne title in June.
“Who would have thought, especially when one of my biggest goals was to be more consistent” De Minaur said with a wry smile.
"Happy and grateful, taking a little bit of a different perspective on life," De Minaur said. "Not to go too deep, but looking at where I am differently, looking at kind of the positives. Happy to be healthy and back competing and being given opportunities to play some tennis and go deep in tournaments.
Obviously, I came out and I played some good tennis, had a convincing win against a quality opponent. That always helps the confidence. Other than that, I'm prone to be more grateful for more where I am and being back healthy.
There's always work behind the scenes. At the end of the day, you've got to put it in practice. I think I've just had a couple conversations with some people that have changed a little bit my perspective on my position. I think that's helped.
De Minaur said the negative side of perfectionists that "nothing is ever good enough and we always want more" can be draining but on the positive side they always want to keep improving.
"It was unexpected. I didn't really know Emilio before this chat. Just to see how appreciative and how grateful he is for where he is, how much he loves it, it gave me a different perspective," De Minaur said.
"Obviously in a better position, playing at better tournaments, I should have way more to be grateful for. It gave me a different perspective on the tour. I was able to look at myself and just say, 'let's take it a bit easier, just be happy with where you are'.
"I was able to absorb a lot of his attitudes to life (and) I was very impressed. It's just intriguing to hear his life story. He's just grateful. He's grateful for every opportunity he gets. I feel like I've taken a lot of things for granted in my career. Maybe I focus sometimes too much on trying to improve and want better for myself.
"Sometimes it doesn't hurt to just step back and look at what you've achieved and what you've accomplished, give yourself a little pat on the back."
It's interesting because maybe if I didn't have this conversation, this random conversation, then things wouldn't have clicked the way they did," he said. "It's experiences in life. Sometimes things just click. They make you think of life in a different way.