A decisive victory marked the start of Maleeva's play at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
Bulgaria's best tennis player, fifth seed, won her first round match at the Pan Pacific Open 6/3, 6/3 to Japan's player Saori Obata. The victory secured Maggie USD 15, 600 in the USD 1.3 M tournament.
In the next round Maleeva will face Lisa Raymond, USA, who defeated Paola Suarez from Argentina 6/1, 4/6, 7/5.
Mary Pierce lost her first round match at the Pan Pacific Open 3-6 6-1 6-0 to sixth seed Silvia Farina Elia.
The tournament has already been hit by the withdrawal of former world number ones Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati, along with Russian glamour girl Anna Kournikova.
In other first-round matches on Tuesday, Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik beat South African Amanda Coetzer 6-4 7-5 while Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn defeated Argentine Clarisa Fernandez 7-6 6-2.