but ended up losing to Flavia Pennetta, 3–6, 1–6. She then went back to the ITF Circuit, after failing to qualify in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, only making it through one semifinal (in Taranto) out of seven events. She also failed to qualify for the French Open and Wimbledon. In the middle of the two Grand Slam tournaments, she made the quarterfinals of the ITF events in Galatina and Fontanafredda. She also failed to qualify for the US Open. But after the US Open, she won her second ITF title in Zhukovskiy. At the beginning of 2004, Bondarenko qualified for the first time and even claimed her first victory there, when she defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives in three sets before being double-bageled by eventual champion Fabiola Zuluaga in the next round. After that she then went back to the ITF Circuit where she won her third title in Bari, prevailing over younger sister Kateryna in the final, 2–6, 6–2, 6–4. After that, she failed to qualify in any of the WTA events she entered while falling early in the ITF events she entered. She then reached the final of Orbetello, losing to Catalina Castaño in three sets. She ended the year with a runner-up performance in Deauville, losing to Květa Peschke 0–6, 3–6, and quarterfinal appearances in the ITF events of Poitiers and Bergamo. 2005 In 2005, Alona made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, where she suffered a first-round loss to sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva, 3–6, 3–6. Two weeks later, she reached her first WTA quarterfinal at Volvo Women's Open in Thailand where she lost to eventual runner-up, Anna-Lena Grönefeld, in straight sets, 4–6, 1–6. The following week at Hyderabad, she reached her first tour final as the tournament's ninth seeded player, falling to hometown favourite Sania Mirza in three tight sets, 4–6, 7–5, 3–6. However, due to this result she made her first appearance in the top 100 of the WTA rankings. She then qualified for her first Tier-I event in the Pacific Life Open, and reached the second round before falling to top doubles player Lisa Raymond 6–4, 3–6, 3–6. She also qualified for the NASDAQ-100 Open but lost in the opening round to Alina Jidkova 3–6, 2–6. She received a direct entry to the Estoril Open, reaching the second round before losing to third seed Gisela Dulko 2–6, 3–6. In the Rome Masters she fell