Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated China's Wang Qiang on Monday at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup.
It was the first time the No. 2 seed has won since sustaining a wrist injury at the US Open last year.
The two-time Grand Slam champion won the first three games of each set 6-3 6-3 to clinch victory in one hour and 40 minutes in the Turkish capital.
"You can practice as much as you want, but nothing gets you better prepared like playing matches," Kuznetsova said after the match.
"I've been practising a lot, but still when I came to the tour, I was not quite ready. I played Indian Wells but I felt like I was out of shape. Physically, I was good, because I had trained, but I needed more matches."
She added: "The level of the tennis is extremely high, so you don't have these tournaments where you can go and win easily one or two matches [right away]. Every match is really hard, so I struggled a little bit, but I knew I just had to get going and my chance would appear."
The Russian returned from injury at the BNP Open in Indian Wells last month but failed to win her opening round match three, as well as at the Miami Open and Ladies' Open Lugano.