The World No. 53, who last week lifted the trophy in Monterrey (d. Flipkens), secured the 7-6(4) 4-6 6-1 win in two hours and 30 minutes on Stadium Court.
Another Kazakh fared better on this first day of main draw action: Yulia Putintseva dismissed Peng Shuai of China 6-0 6-1 in 55 minutes. She will face No. 27 seed Kristina Mladenovic for a place in the third round.
Later in the afternoon, Americans Vania King and Taylor Townsend dueled, with the more experienced King defeating the qualifier Townsend 6-2, 6-3 in 79 minutes.
"I played really well," said King after the match. "I tried to stick to my game plan as much as I could. [Taylor] is a very talented player so I just tried to be aggressive and play my game."
King, a native of Monterey Park, Calif., next plays defending champion Simona Halep.
“I’ve never played against her, but I’m really excited because every match I play at this level will help me get to where I want to be," said King about her Romanian opponent.
Townsend, meanwhile, leaves the tournament with her head held high, having won eight matches in a row before today's contest. Townsend had to win six matches in the BNP Paribas Open pre-qualifying tournament last week, and won two matches in qualifying to earn her main draw spot.
"I'm so happy that I got to play the pre-qualies," said Townsend. "and I'm glad that the tournament has that available for people to play. It really helped me because I felt really match-ready heading into the main draw."
CoCo Vandeweghe celebrated with her home crowd after winning 6-4 6-4 against qualifier Kiki Bertens of The Netherlands. Vandeweghe, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., will face 16th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round. Kuznetsova is a two-time BNP Paribas Open runner-up, having reached finals in 2007 and 2008.
The day's other winners include Johanna Larsson (d. Maria), Katerina Bondarenko (d. Van Uytvanck), Kurumi Nara (d. Pereira), Carina Witthoeft (d. Falconi), Lucie Hradecka (d. Riske), and Lesia Tsurenko (d. Babos).
Source: BNP Paribas Open
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