However, world no.15 Saurav Ghosal lost a hard fought battle against Simon Rosner of Germany in his opening round of the PSA World Series event.
Ghosal went down 12-14 16-14 11-4 9-11 5-11 in 101 minutes against world no.13 Rosner at Grand Central Terminal.
Pallikal, the highest-ranked player in the qualifying draw, beat Whitlock 11-6 11-8 11-6 in the first qualifying round of the WSA Gold event at the Princeton Club.
The Chennai girl will now face Hong Kong's Annie Au for a place in the main draw for the third year in a row.