Connor Garnett booked his spot in the men’s singles final with an 11-7, 11-5 victory over top-seeded Federico Staksrud.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the former Santa Clara University tennis player got some revenge on one of his biggest rivals.

Staksrud was dominant the last time the two squared off, winning by an 11-2, 11-4 score line in the final of The Picklr Utah Open in August.

The No. 3 seed was determined to not succumb to the same fate on Saturday.

“Fed got me pretty comfortably in Utah, so this was one that I really wanted to get back,” he shared.

One thing that worked for Garnett was keeping the majority of his shots to the Staksrud backhand when trying to work his way up to the kitchen line and being selective about when to pull the trigger crosscourt.

With this result, Garnett is one win away from earning his third singles title of 2024.

To do so, he’ll have to beat Hunter Johnson in Sunday’s final.

Hunter Johnson emerged victorious from the second men’s singles semifinal with an 11-3, 0-11, 11-1 victory over No. 11 seed JW Johnson.

As the score line indicates, it was a back-and-forth affair, with both players catching fire during different periods throughout the match.

“I was just kind of going off my momentum in the first game,” H. Johnson mentioned. “But I can pretty confidently say that [JW] changed his game plan in the second. I think he was just hitting bigger and that he was expecting me to keep playing the same way, and I did. I knew that if I did want to switch something up, that would be what the third game was for.”

One distinct change between Games 2 and 3 was H. Johnson’s ability to deal with the drop volleys of J. Johnson. The latter had lots of success with that shot in the second game, but the former began reading it much more effectively in the decider as he sprinted to the victory.

This is the No. 20 seed’s first PPA Championship Sunday appearance since 2022, when he fell to Tyson McGuffin in the final of the Baird Wealth Management Open in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He’ll look to leave Atlanta with a different result.