seed, losing to No. 2 seed Nicole Vaidišová. She was also five-time semifinalist on four different surfaces: on hardcourt at Gold Coast, losing to Schnyder in three sets and later that year again on hardcourt at Seoul, losing to Jelena Janković in three sets; on carpet at Paris Indoors, which was her second straight semifinal there, losing the third set tie-break against Dinara Safina; clay at Charleston, where she secured her third career top-10 victory versus No. 8 Venus Williams en route to her first Tier I semifinal, falling to Justine Henin-Hardenne in two sets; and grass at Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova. She made her top 20 debut (at No. 18) after her semifinal appearance at Charleston. 2006–07 At her first tournament of the year in Gold Coast, Golovin reached the quarterfinals, losing to finalist Flavia Pennetta in three sets. Golovin reached her third consecutive Paris Indoors semifinal, defeating Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals. The victory over world No. 7 Petrova was the fourth top 10 win of her career. She then lost to top seed and eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo. Golovin reached her second career Tier I semifinal at Miami, where she defeated world No. 8 Elena Dementieva in the fourth round for her fifth career top 10 victory and 100th career singles match win. In the semifinal, Golovin overcame a 5–1 deficit and four match points while down 5–3 in second set versus Maria Sharapova, pushing the match to a third set before she sprained her left ankle and retired at 3–6, 7–6, 3–4. Golovin's third semifinal of the season was at Stanford, where, as an unseeded player, she upset Ai Sugiyama and Anna-Lena Grönefeld on the way to losing to No. 2 seed Patty Schnyder. Golovin then reached the quarterfinals of the US Open by defeating Nadia Petrova for the second time in 2006 in the third round and Anna Chakvetadze in the fourth. She then lost to No. 3 seed and eventual champion Maria Sharapova. Golovin reached her first final since the Japan Open Tennis Championships in 2005 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart by defeating Elena Likhovtseva in the first round, Iveta Benešová in the second, Michaëlla Krajicek in the quarterfinals, and eighth seed Patty Schnyder in the semifinals. However, she lost in the final to Nadia Petrova. At the Australian Open Golovin fell in the third round to 16th seed Shahar