After a wild match that lasted over an hour and had seven player challenges, Connor Garnett is moving on to Championship Sunday at the Rate Championships presented by Skechers.

The No. 3 seed defeated top-seeded Federico Staksrud 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 to make his sixth singles final of 2024.

One of the stories of the match was Garnett’s ability to close out games when he had big leads: he had an 8-4 advantage in Game 1 and lost before he had a 4-0 lead in Game 2 and won.

And when it mattered the most in Game 3, Garnett was eventually able to close out the match after having a 9-4 lead.

Though he’s usually known for his two-handed backhand, Garnett’s forehand was the difference-maker in Thursday’s battle.

He hit several winners off that wing, including some beautiful crosscourt drops that seemed to catch Staksrud off-guard.

That success is the result of extra time spent working on the forehand in preparation for this tournament.

“In the last couple tournaments, I came up a little short on the forehand side,” he mentioned. “I know it’s a spot that people are looking to attack, so over the last week I’ve really been focusing on modifying my technique on that, and I’m super fortunate that it was able to come into effect here.”

Garnett will face either No. 6 seed Quang Duong or No. 30 seed Michael Loyd on Sunday when he goes for his third title of the year.