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Amy Grossklag was on the court in time on Wednesday morning for her semifinals match in the Bush Florida Open Tournament at the Landings Tennis Center, but for a while, it looked more like she was stuck in a bad dream.

After going down 4-0 in the first set of her match against Kelsey Laurente of Miramar, Gulf Coast High’s top player battled back to win the set, and eventually the match, 6-4, 6-4. Grossklag now moves on to the girls’ U-16 title match against Nelo Phiri this morning at 9 a.m.

Grossklag defeated Laurente in last year’s tournament, but did so in the consolation bracket. This year, the two are doubles partners, and the knowledge of each other’s abilities certainly played its part in both players’ strategies.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy going against her,” Laurente said. “I think she was attacking my backhand and on service returns she hit them good and wide.”

Grossklag found the most success against Laurente during long volleys, where she could work the ball around the court and wait for Laurente to make a move to exploit.

“I was trying to keep her back because she has a good groundstroke,” Grossklag said. “I also think I got more confident as the match went on — I felt like I was aggressive and able to make plays once I got going.”

That aggression was what made the biggest difference.

After finding herself in an early hole, largely from pressing and making hitting errors, Grossklag woke up and came back with a vengeance, winning three straight games without surrendering a point. Then, after winning the ninth game to go up 5-4 when Laurente gave it away on consecutive double faults, Grossklag won the first set and sent a message in the process by battling through seven deuces.

Laurente broke Grossklag when she was up 40-15 twice on a strong approach to the net to slam home a short lob and then again when Grossklag hit the ball just wide left after a long back-and-forth volley. However, Laurente came up short when she gave Grossklag the advantage by making a play on a well hit drop-shot, only to see her return shot fling across the court and land wide. Laurente lost after hitting the ensuing serve back into the net.

“At first I wasn’t making all my shots, so I just really needed to take a second and step back,” Grossklag said. “I was just trying to find consistency and get back into a rhythm.”

On the scorecard, the second set was just as close as the first, but while Grossklag was able to find her consistency, Laurente wasn’t as lucky. The four games she won came in pairs — once when down 2-0, and again when down 5-2.

Laurente conceded that Grossklag had a better hold on the second set than the first.

“I think I had to deal with some nerves, (Grossklag) stepped up and really put together some nice rallies,” she said. “I don’t think that she was too much, but my timing was off just a little bit, and she got me on that a couple of times.”

The last rally that Grossklag made won the match for her.

After hitting one ball long and another wide, she quickly found herself down 30-0. However, Laurente was forced into making some tough shots and put two of the next three volleys into the net, and sending another one long. After that, Grossklag was able to avoid another deuce for the win.

“I think we’re both a lot better than we were at this time last year,” Grossklag said.