The 24-year-old Canadian, who last month won a slip-and-fall lawsuit against the U.S. Tennis Association over an incident at the 2015 U.S. Open that left her with a concussion, was playing her first match since a first-round loss at Indian Wells two weeks ago.
Yanina Wickmayer, who climbed to a career-high 12th in the rankings shortly after reaching the Miami Open quarter-finals in 2010, also advanced but needed nearly 2-1/2 hours to earn a 6-4 6-7(3) 6-4 win over Australia's Olivia Rogowska.
Andrea Petkovic, a former world number nine, booked her spot in the second round of qualifying when German compatriot Sabine Lisicki retired. Petkovic was leading 4-6 6-3 3-1.
Former French Open runner-up Sara Errani, who was ranked fifth in the world in 2013, fell at the first hurdle after being beaten 6-4 5-7 7-6(2) by Czech Tereza Martincova.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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