2006 began well with the much-improved Chinese rising star qualifying for Gold Coast with wins over Cara Black, Kaia Kanepi (again) and Casey Dellacqua. But Top 20 player Francesca Schiavone was a challenge too far in the main draw first round, defeating Yuan for the loss of just five games. Not one for being easily discouraged, she proceeded to come through qualifying for her fourth WTA Tour main draw and her first at Grand Slam level, the Australian Open, with straight-sets wins over Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine, Elena Baltacha of Great Britain and Bethanie Mattek of the United States. In the main draw, she defeated Melinda Czink 6–4, 6–2, then faced the World No. 2 Kim Clijsters, and took six games from her; but the result in the Belgian's favour was virtually a foregone conclusion. Still, these performances had lifted her dramatically to 108th in the world in just one month.