Elite players aim to find the elusive zone.
Naomi Osaka tunes into the zen.
More: AO Women's Semifinal Preview
The US Open champion said achieving a state of court calm is the key to her 12-match major winning streak that propelled her into the Australian Open semifinals vs. Karolina Pliskova.
"When I'm not calm, it just makes my life harder," Osaka told the media after dismissing Elina Svitolina, 6-4, 6-1, in the quarterfinals. "So I just try to, like, there is an inner peace I can tap into sometimes during my matches, and it's kind of hard to get to, but once I'm there, it's really easy.
"Not easy, but nothing can really bother me. So that's just something that I'm trying to learn how to do consistently."
Riding the learning curve included some racquet-throwing frustration late last season. Osaka said she's in a better place now while trying to ride a relaxed wave.
"I mean, because for me I feel like most people, like right now, most people know me for US Open, right?" Osaka said. "And during US Open, I didn't show any emotions most of the time.
"But then after that, I did show, well, in my opinion, it was a lot of emotions. Like, I got upset, and then I threw my racquet or stuff like that. And, for me, I don't really want to do that. Like, I feel like I play better when I'm calm."
Hall of Famer Chrissie Evert said serenity is a prerequisite to Slam success.
"In my mind, to be relaxed, nothing great is accomplished in this world unless you're in a relaxed state," Evert said.
The 21-year-old Osaka is a relaxed front-runner. Osaka has won 58 straight matches when winning the opening set. She hasn't lost a match when winning the first set since her final match of the 2016 season in Tianjin when she fell to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson