As the scoreline suggests, Katherine was too good for her Indian opponent displaying an array of fine serves and groundstrokes with power and precision.
In a marathon battle, eighth seed Shweta Rana got the better of Bhuvana Kalva 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4) in a contest, lasting over three hours.
Shewta won got a break in the seventh game in the first set to lead 4-3 but Bhuvana broke back for a 4-all scoreline.
At 5-5 Shewta broke her opponent's serve and held on to win the first set 7-5.
The 2nd and 3rd third sets could have gone either way Shweta held her nerves in the deciding tie-breakers to settle the issue.
Meanwhile, third seed Rishika Sunkara defeated Victoria Chehal quite easily 6-0 6-0 and seventh seed Prarthana Thombare made short work of Aranxta Andrady 6-1 6-1.
Reigning hard court national champion Prerna Bhambri, seeded fifth, beat Shreya Pasricha 6-4 6-2.
Results, Round One (Indians unless specified):
Rushmi Chakravorty b Treta Bhattacharya 6-4, 6-3; Rishika Sunara b Victoria Chehal 6-0, 6-0; Prarthana Thombare b Aranxta Andrady 6-1, 6-1; Katherine IP b Nidhi Chilumula 6-0, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri b Shreya Pasricha 6-4, 6-2; Shewta Rana b Bhuvana Kalva 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4); Manya Nagpal b Megha Sherawat 6-2, 6-0; Spurthi Shivalingaiah bt Nikita Deshmukh 6-0, 6-0.
