Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio booked the second spot in the men’s doubles final with an 11-3, 12-14, 12-10 victory over No. 3 seeds Andrei Daescu/Dylan Frazier.

The No. 2 seeds had to save a match point in their Round of 16 clash against Ryan Fu/Zane Navratil, but it turns out that wouldn’t be their only three-game thriller of the day.

Johns/Tardio came out on fire, with Tardio having success crashing off of Johns’ third shot drives. That helped them take the first game and build a 6-1 lead in Game 2.

Daescu/Frazier would not go down so easily, however.

They staged a comeback in a wild second game—saving four match points in the process—and somehow forced a decider.

The third game was a back-and-forth affair, as Johns/Tardio overcame an early 0-4 deficit. Finally, after over an hour on court, they closed out what could be remembered as the match of the tournament at the sixth time of asking.

Johns talked about the mentality going into Game 3 after having had multiple chances to close out the contest in the second game.

“I just knew that we needed to do basically the same thing we did in Game 2,” he mentioned. “I felt like if we got more good looks, we were going to come away with it, and it’s fortunate that Gabe plays really well under pressure. He goes for his shots, and that’s exactly what we needed at the end there to pull through.”

This is the second tournament that Johns/Tardio have played together. They earned silver in Mesa, but Tardio is looking to do one better in the Lone Star State.

“I’m feeling super happy to be back in a final with Ben,” he said. “I think it’s a lot of pressure playing with him, so I’m just happy to get it done today. Hopefully we can take gold tomorrow and not a silver.”

Top seeds Christian Alshon/Federico Staksrud await the tandem in the final.