Inactive since representing her country in the Fed Cup in mid-July, Mauresmo started slowly against her 53rd ranked opponent but grew stronger as the match wore on after fighting off a couple of break points early in the second set.
"Not so easy, especially the second set," Mauresmo said.
"Physically, I had some trouble to keep the rhythm and was making way too many errors to really finish it off the way I wanted to."
Third-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova had an even tougher time in her second round match, overcoming a terrible start to finally eliminate Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Like Mauresmo, Kuznetsova had a first round bye and she felt that might have been a factor in her shaky start.
"First matches are very dangerous because other players have already played some and know the ball, the surface," the U.S. Open champion said.
"Maybe I was a little bit nervous in the first set
SERENA TESTED
In the evening, Serena Williams was another of the top ranked players given a tough test, and the fifth seeded American was forced to dig deep to overcome Stephanie Cohen Aloro of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Top seeded Russian Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament on Sunday and ninth seeded American Venus Williams pulled out last week with the flu.
They were joined by eighth seed Mary Pierce of France, who withdrew Monday due to a strained right quadriceps, making her the fifth top 20 player to pull out of the tournament in the past week.
In first round matches, 11th seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro was the highest ranked player to lose when she was dumped 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 by China's Na Li.
Tenth seeded Nathalie Dechy of France moved on with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia and number 12 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Montenegro defeated Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-2, 7-6.
The 13th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia retired from her match against Russian Alina Jidkova with the match tied 4-6, 6-4, 4-4 due to heat exhaustion.