2008
Early in January 2008, the young Russian, now 21, gained direct entry into a WTA Tour main draw for the second time in her career. And this time, unlike the last, she succeeded in winning her first round match, dispatching Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6–3 6–4. But she lost what began as a close three-setter to Australian Casey Dellacqua in Round Two, 4–6 6–4 1–6.
This performance nevertheless took her to a career-high ranking of World No. 140 on January 14, 2008.
The following week, Lapushchenkova entered herself for the qualifying draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, but lost an evenly fought contest in the first round to Margit Rüütel of Estonia, 6–7 6–2 2–6.
She took the next few weeks off from competition, but then entered qualifying for the Tier II event at Paris in early February. For the ninth time in nine of trying, she failed to gain entry to the main draw of a WTA event through the qualifying route, although she did reach the qualifying round with wins over Zuzana Ondrášková of the Czech Republic (in straight sets) and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland (in three sets) before being defeated by American Julie Ditty, 5–7 3–6.
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