2006
After taking a few months' break at the beginning of 2006, she returned to Minsk in March, where a $10,000 event afforded her direct entry. After fighting her way past a couple of tricky opponents en route to her career-first semi-final at any level, she dominated Ekaterina Ivanova to reach her first ever final, only to be denied the title by upcoming Ukrainian Galyna Kosyk, who defeated her 6–1, 7–6.
Buoyed nonetheless by her auspicious recent results, at Lebanon in May she attempted to qualify for a $75,000 tournament for the first time. Despite winning her first round match for the loss of just five games, she lost the second by an identical margin to an opponent she had previously beaten elsewhere, Olga Panova.
Later that month, she challenged herself still further by entering qualifying for a WTA Tour event for the first time. This took the shape of the Tier III tournament at Istanbul, but Lapushchenkova lost a close three-set match in the first round of qualifying to Eva Hrdinová of the Czech Republic.
Late in June, the Russian teenager retreated to the $10,000 arena at Kharkiv, Ukraine, and for the second time in succession at this level fought her way through to the final, before losing to another little-known Ukrainian, Veronika Kapshay.
But the very next week, another $10,000 tournament held at Zhukovsky, Russia would bring Lapushchenkova her long-awaited career-first ITF title, although she struggled once more against a little-known opponent in the final, this time a Russian player called Yulia Solonitskaya, before finally taking the match 1–6, 7–5, 7–5.
Lapushchenkova suffered some mixed results over the summer, though she was now able to enjoy direct entry to $25,000 events, and achieved a career-best performance in reaching the semi-final of one of them at Moscow in late August, where she was ultimately defeated by her upcoming compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, 0–6, 5–7.
Returning to Tbilisi in September, she entered another $10,000 event there, and this time raced through the draw for the loss of just one set to claim her second career ITF title.
Later that month, she reached the quarter-final stage in another $25,000 tournament at Batumi, Georgia, but then lost to an unheralded Romanian called Agnes Szatmari.
Her second attempt at qualifying for a WTA Tour main draw followed at Moscow in October, but it was a very ambitious move to make since this was a Tier I event. She encountered an improved Oksana Lyubtsova in the first round of qualifying and beat her in three sets despite losing the first 1–6. But she ultimately lost to Czech star Iveta Benešová in what began as a very evenly matched clash in Round Two, 6–7 2–6.
In November she returned again to Minsk, which once more proved fortunate for her, as she reached her second career $25,000 semi-final, again beating Ekaterina Dzehalevich on the way there. But compatriot Yevgeniya Rodina narrowly won their semi-final tie 7–6 7–5.
The following week she entered the $25,000 contest at Opole, Poland, but this time could only reach the second round, where she came up against an unexpectedly high-ranked opponent for this level of event, Yulia Beygelzimer of the Ukraine, and despite putting up a close fight in the second set, lost to her 2–6, 6–7.
Lapushchenkova ended a year of steady gains ranked at World No. 313, up 214 places on her performance in 2005.
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