[2] Rodina began her career on the ITF Circuit with the assistance of a wildcard into the first round of the main draw of a $25k tournament at Moscow in late August 2004, when she was fifteen and a half years old, and took a set from up-and-coming fellow Russian Elena Vesnina, though she lost the match in three.

After taking a six-month break from competition, she was granted a further wildcard directly into the main draw of a $10k event at Cavtat, Croatia in late April 2005, after her 16th birthday, and this time won two rounds before losing in the quarterfinals.

Wildcarded into the $50k Batumi Ladies Open main draw, also in Georgia, at the end of that month, she reached the second round, then lost to another compatriot, Alla Kudryavtseva.

The ranking points accrued by this run of results were sufficient to afford her direct entry into the main draw of the next $25k contest she entered, which took place at Minsk in Belarus, early in November.

In mid-November she was forced to fight through qualifying to enter the popular $25k event at Průhonice in the Czech Republic, and succeeded in defeating future top-50 star Dominika Cibulková and Maša Zec Peškirič to achieve this end.

Returning to competition towards the end of February, she gained direct entry into a $50 tournament at St. Paul, Minnesota, and won her first-round tie before losing to Ahsha Rolle.

In July, she suffered another early loss in the main draw of a $25k tournament at Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, as she was trounced by unheralded Ukrainian Galyna Kosyk in the second round in straight sets.

The following month, she qualified for her second $75k draw, and this time came away with two main-draw victories also to extend her winning streak to ten, at the expense of Jorgelina Cravero and Aleksandra Wozniak.

The very next week, she won through qualifying into a $50k event at Ashland, Kentucky, and defeated Varvara Lepchenko in the second round of the main draw before losing to future top-20 star Ágnes Szávay in the quarterfinals.

As a direct entrant into the main draw of her next $50k tournament the following week, in early October, she was stopped in the second round by Ahsha Rolle, who this time defeated her easily for the loss of just two games.

Later that month at Přerov in the Czech Republic, she cruised to the semifinals of another $25k event, before losing to British player Anne Keothavong 6–7, 2–6 in what would be the Russian's last match of the year.

The following week, she reached the quarterfinals of a $50k tournament at Saint-Gaudens, France with wins over Margalita Chakhnashvili and Joanna Sakowicz, but was then demolished by Tatiana Perebiynis who allowed her only one game in the match.

After another month's break, she returned to action in late July at the $75k tournament at Pétange, Luxembourg, and made it through to the quarterfinal stage before losing to Carla Suárez Navarro, 6–7, 1–6.

At the end of the month, she achieved a career-first at Tashkent, Uzbekistan in qualifying for a WTA Tour main draw, by successively defeating both Marta Domachowska of Poland and her compatriot Anna Lapushchenkova in straight sets.

Towards the end of the month, Rodina returned to the ITF Circuit once more at Podolsk, Russia, and this time fought past Galyna Kosyk in a three-set quarterfinal to avenge her crushing defeat at her hands back in July 2006.

At the semifinal stage, she ousted Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in another three-set tussle, but in the final she defeated Anna Lapushchenkova, against whom she has never yet lost, to earn her third career ITF singles title, and third at $25k level.

Ironically, the final proved to be her easiest match of the tournament, as she virtually bulldozed Romanian Sorana Cîrstea for the loss of just one game each set, to take home her career-first $50k title.

In December, however, she entered the $75k tournament at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and enjoyed further success, with another victory over Anna Lapushchenkova in the second round, followed by the avenging of her previous defeat by Alla Kudryavtseva in the quarterfinals, though it was to be another close three-set match between them.

A reprieve from this disappointing run of finishes was just around the corner, however, as at the annual Tier-I event at Indian Wells held over two weeks in the middle of March she came through two tough rounds of qualifying by defeating resurgent former top-50 star Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria and world No.

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.