Hunter Johnson is into the men’s singles final after an 11-6, 11-7 victory over top-seeded Federico Staksrud.

The No. 10 seed jumped out to big leads of 8-0 and 6-1 in Games 1 and 2, which gave him enough of a cushion to win both and make his second consecutive singles final.

Fresh off a three-game win over Connor Garnett in the quarterfinals, the former SMU tennis standout says that he’s gaining confidence in high-pressure moments.

“I’ve had a couple of close matches this tournament, and I think that has helped me realize that as the match goes deeper and gets tougher, I can still pull out wins.”

The last time these two faced off in August at the Las Vegas Pickleball Cup, Johnson won the first game and had an 8-4 lead in the Game 2 before Staksrud pulled off an incredible comeback to steal the win.

Johnson was motivated to avoid a similar result on Saturday.

“I think I lost 14 points in a row to [Fed] last time, so I knew it couldn’t get worse,” he said. “I just remained focused, and I knew that if I kept the momentum and kept pushing that my shots would land, and luckily they did today.”

Johnson will face Ben Johns when he goes for his second straight PPA singles title on Championship Sunday.

Johns eased past No. 8 seed Jaume Martinez Vich 11-1, 11-8 to claim the second spot in the men’s singles championship.

Martinez Vich took the win in three games the last time these two faced off at the Desert Ridge Open in February, but Johns came out focused and got it done in two on Saturday.

Johns is 4-0 in his career against Johnson, but their most recent bout at the Orange County Cup went to three games, with Johns coming away with an 11-0, 10-12, 11-8 victory.

We’ll see if another three-game battle is on the books for Sunday.