320 in the WTA rankings, and had earned herself a reputation as 'one to watch', having shown plenty of recent promise of further improvement in the preceding year.

However, she did not compete again for a whole year after the beginning of August, and thus gained for herself only a lowly end-of-year foothold on the world ranking list at No.

When August finally came around again in 2003, she returned to competition as a 16-year-old at ITF events; and that October she reached the quarterfinal of a $25k tournament at Beijing after being awarded a wildcard entry into the main draw, before losing to Yuka Yoshida.

Then in September, she qualified for her first WTA Tour event at Guangzhou International Open with an impressive three-set victory over the young Croat prospect Ivana Lisjak, but lost in the first round of the main draw to Alina Jidkova of Russia.

233 in May 2007, a dismal run of early losses over the summer and Autumn that year caused her ranking to slip back to No.